General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWP oped on Trump's total destruction of our government... finally.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/its-not-news-that-trump-is-corrupt-whats-new-is-how-he-is-succeeding-in-corrupting-our-government/2019/10/06/c492b6ba-e6d3-11e9-b403-f738899982d2_story.htmlIts not news that Trump is corrupt. Whats new is how he is succeeding in corrupting our government.
By Fred Hiatt
But as time goes on, the government more and more is endorsing and amplifying policies that serve Trumps political interest. Just recently:
As soon as Trump decided to make political hay out of Californias homeless population, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler accused the (Democratic) state of allowing human feces to pollute its waterways and demanded action. Around the country, 3,508 community water systems are out of compliance with standards; only California attracted the EPAs attention.
Indulging another Trump obsession, the State Department has intensified an investigation of Obama-era officials who sent emails to Hillary Clinton including by retroactively classifying some of their messages, as The Post reported a few days ago.
Yes, take this as a warning of what a second term would mean. Norms get eroded, a nonpartisan bureaucracy can be corrupted.
AJT
(5,240 posts)dchill
(38,532 posts)pangaia
(24,324 posts)Lib 4 Life
(97 posts)"..a nonpartisan bureaucracy can be corrupted."
usaf-vet
(6,207 posts)He hires grifters.
jmowreader
(50,562 posts)Trumps reign reminds me of the scene in Blazing Saddles where Mr. Johnson shows Bart the Help Wanted poster for people to level Rock Ridge. At the bottom it reads Criminal record required.
usaf-vet
(6,207 posts)Grasswire2
(13,571 posts)Think about it. A corrupt MOBBED UP city has a corrupt DA, a corrupted Medical Examiner, a corrupt Chief of Police, etc.
The first thing they do to a new recruit is get evidence of a crime on him/her.
Same goes for spies, incidentally.
dalton99a
(81,570 posts)- Which was doubly convenient, in fact, because Justice, with great efficiency, determined that although soliciting assistance from a foreign power on behalf of a political campaign is against the law Trump had nothing to worry about, on the pretext that prosecutors were unable to assign a dollar value to the help he had solicited. Case closed. Case never even opened, in fact.
Whats going on? Senior officials who had the fortitude to defend the rule of law have gradually been replaced by those who put ambition over principle. A few who still try to do the right thing are kept in vulnerable acting positions and hemmed in by toadies and hacks in subordinate positions.
Meanwhile, honest civil servants leave or become demoralized. They watch first-class research agencies be deliberately disrupted and degraded. They see Trump firing (Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch) and threatening (the still anonymous whistleblower) honest professionals. Resistance to abuse of power naturally dwindles.
Mike 03
(16,616 posts)Wounded Bear
(58,706 posts)flibbitygiblets
(7,220 posts)"Ooh, he's corrupting people around him!". This is not breaking news. We all know it and it doesn't change anything.
Every major news outlet in this country needs to call for him to resign, full stop.
KPN
(15,650 posts)useless. Geezuz!!
calimary
(81,466 posts)Bernardo de La Paz
(49,036 posts)KPN
(15,650 posts)than 2022 if not 2020). That has to be every tRump opponents agenda and priority. Personally, I think we need a candidate who is viewed as a change agent in order to win the WH, so I favor economic progressives. But I'll absolutely work and vote for whoever becomes our eventual nominee.