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The Federal Personnel Operations Scoreboard

(Departures only)

First this update from a very good unofficial scorekeeper:

It seems that under Trump from the way he talks, acts, implements, or has tried to implement is that he does not favor our well-established and time-proven government structure all. In the end that equates to and shows clearly: Nada, nil, none, nothing except that which Trump wants to run, as a one-man show, and that is simply we are a branch of Trump Empire, Inc. – the one-man run by the Trump family and solely for the Trump family. 

Keep that in mind with this train of thought on how well we know how well Trump-Kushner has handled big financial deals and how they have piled up enormous debt along with massive borrowing (mostly from foreign sources) that equates to tons of loans, quite a few bankruptcies and well, just plain poor management, and along the way one huge con as they continue to say how successful they are despite the overwhelming ton of hubris from them we hear almost daily.

This headline from the UK’s “Independent” says it all – and it was written merely one day after he was sworn into office (January 21, 2017) that fine article is here.

“Donald Trump and his Cabinet prove he believes government is just like running a business. He’s about to get a shock”

Corporate bosses are accustomed to having everything their own way: “Give an order, and it will be carried out.” Government is a molasses-thick bureaucracy that can blunt and delay implementation of the most firmly-delivered instruction.

This JFK’s analogy says it better than anyone when he quipped in 1962 at a White House dinner honoring Nobel Prize winners as he hailed them as “the biggest collection of talent assembled in that building since Thomas Jefferson dined alone.” 

Wise to ponder this conclusion of this fine article which highlighted the failures of these “business-types” before and how did worth out – just think: Herbert Hoover; Charlie Wilson (former CEO); or Donald Rumsfeld (former CEO) who ran the Pentagon, sanctioned torture and then botched the Iraq War; or Robert McNamara (former CEO) – just say Vietnam War; or Wilbur Ross (billionaire who compares cans of beans price increase to people in need); and the cream of this crop as it were: Betsy DeVos (billionaire for private schools/vouchers and such) at Education who even  at her confirmation hearing proved she knew practically nothing about public education (only she just hates it) and when she was questioned about guns at schools she justified it as okay states like Wyoming “to ward off grizzly bear attacks” (VP Pence had to break a tie vote for her to be confirmed) – now it’s all in full bloom. And,  now here we are today with Trump and his “board of directors” – boy, how much has his cabinet changed? The chart above shows the Top 50. 

This list does not even count those on very thin ethical ice: Secy Ryan Zinke (Interior), Secy Steven Mnuchin (Treasury), Secy David Shulkin (VA) for their excessive travel and public tax dollar “rip-off” for expenses and office stuff like new doors, etc., or Secy Ben Carson (HUD) for his furniture upgrade attempt.

There is an age-old theory that if only we would run government or a department like a corporation then all would be great, i.e., deficits would disappear, waste would stop, everything would work perfectly and shareholders – and in our case, we 320 million Americans – would see our “stock portfolio rise and grow.” Were it true.

Alas, the theory overlooks a couple of points. First, these particular shareholders are an unruly bunch and around half of them want you to fail. Second, running a company is very different from running a government, even a part of government. Corporate bosses are accustomed to having everything their own way. Give an order, and it will be carried out. As long as you keep profits rising and shareholders happy, there’s nothing to worry about.  Government doesn’t work that way.

To prosper, compromise and knowing when to give ground are essential; the president or cabinet officer who acts like an almighty CEO will sooner or later be cut down to size. But whenever the going gets rough for the country the old yearnings for the business executive, preferably swashbuckling and headline-making, resurface.

Today we hear many who run for various high offices say: “I don’t have any experience in running up a $4 trillion debt. I don’t have any experience in gridlocked government where nobody takes responsibility for anything and everybody blames everybody else, but I do have a lot of experience in getting things done, elect me.”

Well, we finally got that kind of man now at the top: Donald J. Trump. 

Let’s hope he doesn’t turn out like another businessman-turned-president: His name was Herbert Hoover.

My 2 cents: I fear that point of no return has been reached and breached … no turning back now.

Ride it out – or kick them all out and start from scratch? Were it that easy.

But midterm elections are forthcoming – so, will the public come to grips with reality and act the right and just way? In hard times we have – let’s hope that time is now once again.

Stay tuned.

Thanks for stopping by.