The dots have been connected, Rachel did it
The Rachel Maddow, MSNBC
It’s pay-back time for Prexy Trump who won it
With all the help from Putin, we can see
Don Trump has stripped the State Department bare
Of all its seasoned world-wide expertise
There’s no one left with status who would dare
To criticize decisions he decrees
Now Trump intends that sanctions be withdrawn
On Russia based on annexing Crimea
The half-a-trillion oil deal’s back on
With Tillerson at State, that’s Trump’s idea
And Rachel cited Russia’s new arrest
The cyber chief of FSB (the KGB)
Mikhailov, with coercion, will confess
To treason: kompromat to Steele he leaked
No proof! The evidence is circumstantial
Now add in Trump’s behavior so bizarre
Preferring Russia over allies more substantial
This worries me like little else – so far
1/26/17
Allen’s mind is as perceptive as his fingers!
You wrote:
Don Trump has stripped the State Department bare
Of all its seasoned world-wide expertise
There’s no one left with status who would dare
To criticize decisions he decrees
I get that your poetry tends to highlight events and trends, and may exaggerate for effect or to make a point, but this is beyond hyperbole, and I really think it’s the wrong approach.”
. Several of my friends are starting careers at DoS and while a few officials have retired, it’s not “stripped bare” of “all” it’s world-wide expertise (c’mon Sabba…), nor is it shorn of all individuals “with status” (and by that you mean…?) who could criticize Trump. To characterize it as such is irresponsible and self-defeating because it feeds this climate of paranoia and fear, painting as it does a picture of a thorough Orwellian cleansing of the federal bureaucracy. It is also disrespectful of the many career professionals in DoS and across federal agencies whose dedication to America and their profession is stronger than the first week of the Trump presidency.
But ultimately I think that claim is unfounded. The following article includes several voices about what happened:
http://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-state-department-secretary-state-rex-tillerson-548901
The article acknowledges that the departure of several senior officials won’t be easy to fill but also that the DoS (like many Federal organizations) is built to adapt and that the departure of several people doesn’t spell the death of that agency’s ability to function.
I am concerned about how professionals in the federal bureaucracy will operate in the new administration, and whether their professionalism will be taken seriously or thrust aside, but this is a more medium-long term concern that goes beyond the decisions of a few officials in the first week.
This HAS been a rough week with a bombardment of changes and pronouncements, but we need to see them with clarity, and not distorted by fear and hyperbole. “The only thing that’s the end of the world, is the end of the world.”
Michael
Thanks for you comment and reference. It is normal practice for senior political appointees, but not career employees unless requested by the new administration, to submit resignations to new administrations. It is not normal practice for any of them to be accepted effective immediately. Rachel cited one senior official who was in flight to an international meeting, who was ordered back since he was no longer employed. I don’t know her sources but she is pretty careful; about them. As I understand it there will be vacancies in those top career positions as well as ambassadors and political appointees . Granted, the State Department will survive but in a weakened state for some time. It is during this extended transition period that the country is most at risk. I find it difficult to feel confident, should a State Department related serious incident arise, that the remaining career staff after seeing what happened to their bosses, would have thew guts to advise the president against his response when they professionally disagree.
In any case, this was a side issue of the poem. The more important issue is the relation between Trump and Putin. The discussion of the State Department and Tillerson was in that context. The nature of this relationship has concerned me for some time. The fact, reported by Rachel, that the head of cyber of the FSB was arrested and charged with treason tends to lend more credence to the BuzzFeed dossier by former MI6 agent Steele (who has since gone to ground) about Trump in Russia. I got the impression that when Trump lifts the sanctions on Russia, he does not want any dissension coming out of the State Department.