That run is over, though. Read this article in the Atlantic about the wreckage of the State Department. It’s rather depressing.
“They really want to blow this place up,” said the mid-level State Department officer. “I don’t think this administration thinks the State Department needs to exist. They think Jared [Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law] can do everything. It’s reminiscent of the developing countries where I’ve served. The family rules everything, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs knows nothing.”
Kleptocracy and nepotism. It is very banana republic.
Goodbye, United States of America.
“This is probably what it felt like to be a British foreign service officer after World War II, when you realize, no, the sun actually does set on your empire,” said the mid-level officer. “America is over. And being part of that, when it’s happening for no reason, is traumatic.”
And to think, all this is at the hands of the uber-patriotic Republicans and their flag-waving electorate.
Junta lite: how generals and billionaires took over Trump’s militarized America (“America has undergone a transformation since the 9/11 attacks — and the ascent of Donald Trump has merely shoved that reality directly in our faces”).
As has been proven, they don’t even care what flag they wave. And they sure as fuck don’t care what it’s actually supposed to represent.
They just wanted a strongman dictator.
They have been against the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, the Enlightenment and civilization itself from the very beginning. They are barbarians.
he is an acting assistant secretary and he doesn’t know how long it will take for a political appointee to take his place.
In some ways this is the weirdest thing for a Canadian.
A deputy minister in Canada, whom I assume is something like an assistant secretary, would be a highly experienced civil servant with perhaps 15–20 years experience in how the government functions. In whatever we are calling External Affairs these days, the DM would likely have overseas experience as well.
In any case he or she would know how things worked and who to consult on issues. Even if a DM did not know the knots and bolts of the department’s issues they would know how to get briefed on them fast, and how to brief the minister.
The US has a political appointee doing the same thing? Hopefully he or she can find Europe and Asia on a map.
Yeah, we’re toast. And people will keep carping on about details to the loss of the big picture. Until the boots show up at the door to take them away.
45 = Kim Jong Don
jrkrideau@#3:
The US has a political appointee doing the same thing? Hopefully he or she can find Europe and Asia on a map.
One of my history teachers told about Millard Fillmore apparently offering to do joint naval maneuvers with Switzerland. I’ve never found anything confirming that story, though. I’m pretty sure Kushner would sent a carrier task force group, though: gotta protect Switzerland’s cheese production. He’s plenty smart.
Given the US State Department’s history, it might be a coin-toss whether having a non-effective or non-existent department is better than one that appears to be largely trying to get the US into wars by acting as a leading wedge for “regime change” I’m not talking Benghazi, here, but the US’ foreign state-craft hasn’t exactly been great; just ask most of the rest of the world.
tell 45 ISIS is ivading Freedonia, send in troops to restore Freedonia to supplying US with all the oil it provides us to benefit our workers.
tell him the word is direct from well documented source of “Groue.__.Choe.__.Marks.”
[*stage whisper*]
seriously wonder how long that will take to go over.
sigh
One of my history teachers told about Millard Fillmore apparently offering to do joint naval maneuvers with Switzerland.
Sounds reasonable to me. I really doubt that George W. Bush knew where Afghanistan was before he authorized an invasion. And I am seriously not joking.
Does anyone know if GWB had been out of the country before he was elected president?
I once made a joke about the number of civil servants in Ottawa to a couple from Albany New York who had been visiting Canada for 10-12 years. They did not get the joke as neither of them knew that Ottawa was the capital of Canada. She had a masters in education and he was a graduate engineer.
I do have to say that I have thought that the State Dept incompetence was more due to political appointees than the civil service officers but I might easily be wrong.
What is perhaps worse is the thought that we’re taking down other countries with us. Will France be next to fall?
Perhaps better that it happens now, with an extremely *unpopular* President…
It’s not “happening for no reason”. Empires are like the heroes of great tragedies, in that they are always undone by their own natures, and their greatest strengths inevitably become the seeds of their own destruction. You’ve spent a century overthrowing democracies for the benefit of corporate oligarchy. You know where the term “banana republic” comes from, right? Well, congratulations, that shit is coming home to roost. You’ve sown the wind, and now it’s time to reap the rewards. Unfortunately, the rest of us have to deal with the consequences too… But you’ll have to excuse us if we’re a little short on sympathy.
I’m not sure I can excuse a lack of sympathy towards numerous people being condemned to suffer and die in a fascist regime or the collapse of a world power by virtue of being born in the wrong place at the wrong time.
I have plenty of sympathy for people suffering and dying. I just don’t have sympathy for people whose suffering is limited to the existential angst of watching the empire they’ve been happily running for their entire careers turn sour. Boo fucking hoo.
Fair enough. Sorry for my bristling, I’ve just seen a fair bit of like “Hooray the US is dying you all had it coming” type posts on social media, and I guess that kinda prodded a raw area for me.
They’re über patriotic to try to hide that they put their god over we the people, outmoded scriptures over the constitution, and their ignorant and ill-informed world view over reality. Dangerous fucks.
Somehow I doubt that the Trump administration’s disdain for the state department signals an end to the global role of the US. You don’t propose to boost your military budget even more if you intend to withdraw from world affairs.
This is the action of a group of people who despise as insiders all of the professionals in the government and who are sure that they can do the job better.
It’s irrelevant, frankly. investing in the military industrial complex gets you returns regardless of whether you use the toys or not.
It’s exactly what Eisenhower warned about nearly 70 years ago now.
I’ve been more of the “US is dying… and why the fuck are all of you not doing something about it?” mode.
seriously, progressives outnumber conservatives by 3:1 in the US.
LaPierre is gearing his NRA wankers for war. not kidding.
people need to put a stop to this shit soon, or you will have another civil war on your hands.
instead of protesting? blockade. stop these fuckers from even being able to leave their houses, or their “towers”. Shut down the white house, shut down congress.
the US government is clearly broken anyway. we all know this. everyone needs to make sure that the con men who made it that way face consequences, so at least they then have second thoughts.
I’m cynical though. I predict America will not rise up to end this themselves, but will let it get SO bad, someone else will have to do it for them. and by that point, we will be talking oceans of blood.
Vivec, @14: Don’t worry about it, I probably could have been clearer. It’s important to remember that the people who’ll be doing the actual suffering are not the people who’ve been running anything, or have even had any significant input into the so-callled democratic process. I’m generally not a fan of treating entire countries as unified, homogeneous blocks, but it’s a common enough viewpoint that I can understand why you would read it that way.
Re joint naval operations with Switzerland, if the US can have a Department of Justice, then why can’t Switzerland have a Department of the Navy?
Eh, fuck the State Department. We are not the State Department. It can be rebuilt if we ever get out of this mess. I am not going to miss our empire either.
.
Our real-life survival depends on us, not them.
three actual weapons, in order of increasing diffi
Damn typo, ignore the last sentence fragment.
In fairness to Switzerland I think they do have a couple of armed patrol boats on the larger lakes, just in case.
This reminds me of the British arms company who, about 20 years ago, tried to get round an arms embargo then in place for some Middle East nation by describing on the end-user certificate (a notorious bureaucratic device for getting government approval for the sale) the whole submarine they were selling as ‘submarine parts for Paraguay’. They almost got away with it.