Merchants belong in mercantile sectors where everything’s for sale. Public
Servants belong in the public (government) sector.
A towered elephant who enjoys seeing his name plastered on large
buildings, a plunderer who never should have been nominated for or by any
process or apparatus seated in the position of US head of state; and who has in
office orchestrated continuous instability in the US executive branch of
government and further weakened it by his incestuous positioning of family
members and friends [unqualified and unfit for purpose]; and has recklessly
undermined and accelerated the disestablishment of essential principles,
processes, and proper working of the government of the United States.
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mong the elephant’s latest trampling is Michael Kevin Atkinson: Oswego,
New York, native, Juris Doctor-Cornell Law School graduate, member of the
District of Columbia Bar, 11 years practicing law partner in Winston and
Strawn, 15 years with the US Department of Justice (Criminal Division, Fraud
Section, 2002 through 2006; assistant US Attorney in the US Attorney’s Office
for the District of Columbia, 2006 through 2016; National Security Division,
2006 –2018).
President Trump in November 2017 nominated the qualified Atkinson for
the position of Inspector General of the Intelligence Community (ICIG); the US
Senate, by voice vote, on May 14, 2018, confirmed the nomination of Atkinson.
During the Senate confirmation hearing, the nominee had reportedly
promised to “encourage, operate, and enforce a program for authorized
disclosures by whistleblowers within the intelligence community that validates
moral courage without compromising national security and without retaliation.”
The following year, news sources reported that the US president had
become “angry” with his nominee, felt him “disloyal” to him, and wanted to
“fire” him.
On April 3, 2020, news sources reported that the elephant had again
opted for his narcissistic pattern of furthering governmental destabilization
by firing a qualified public servant, Inspector General of the Intelligence
Community (ICIG) Michael Kevin Atkinson (source Wikipedia)
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tkinson is quoted saying “It is hard not to think that the president’s
loss of confidence in me derives from my having faithfully discharged my legal
obligations as an independent and impartial inspector general, and from my
commitment to continue to do so.” Atkinson is said to have pleaded with
potential whistleblowers, whistleblowers, and their supporters “… not [to]
allow recent events to silence [their] voices.….”
Addressing the rights of whistleblowers, he said, “I have faith that my
colleagues in Inspectors General Offices throughout the federal government will
continue to operate effective and independent whistleblower programs, and that
they will continue to do everything in their power to protect the rights of
whistleblowers.”
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UT 2020
Known US Executive Branch removals, firings, resignations
JANUARY 2020
- 1. January 1, 2020: Ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor
- 2. January 8, 2020: Assistant Director for Cybersecurity (CISA) Jeanette Manfra
- 3. January 10, 2020: Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) director [became Chief Technology Officer of Lockheed Martin] Steven Walker
- 4. January 13, 2020: Treasurer of the United States [became Small Business Administration administrator] Jovita Carranza
- 5. January 31, 2020: Secretary of Defense Chief of Staff Eric Chewning
- 6. January 31, 2020: Deputy Administrator for Resilience of the Federal Emergency Management Agency Daniel Kaniewski
- 7. January 31, 2020: US Attorney for the District of Columbia Jessie K. Liu [nominated under secretary of the treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence; nomination withdrawn February 11, 2020]
FEBRUARY 2020
- 8. February 2020: White House Director of Presidential Personnel Sean Doocey
- 9. February 3, 2020: special advisor to the vice president on European and Russian affairs Jennifer Williams [returned to Us Department of State]
- 10. February 3, 2020: Deputy Secretary of Veterans Affairs Thomas G. Bowman
- 11. February 7, 2020: ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland
- 12. February 7, 2020: United States Homeland Security Advisor Peter Brown [named special representative for Puerto Rico’s Disaster Recovery]
- 13. February 7, 2020: National Security Council Director for European Affairs Alexander Vindman (and his twin brother, Yevgeny, also an Army Lieutenant Colonel and an ethics lawyer, removed from NSC]
- 14. February 19, 2020: National Security Council senior director for Counterterrorism Kash Patel [moved to senior advisor at ODNI (Office of the Director of National Intelligence), as Richard Grenell becomes DNI]
- 15. February 19, 2020: Under Secretary of Defense (Policy) John Rood
- 16. February 20, 2020: Deputy National Security Advisor for Middle East and North African Affairs Victoria Coates [following “rumors” of her authorship of an anonymous op-ed, she is assigned to US Department of Energy]
MARCH 2020
- 17. March 2020: Judge Randolph Moss ruled that the Trump administration’s appointment of Ken Cuccinelli as United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) acting director was in violation of the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998 [then positioned as Homeland Security acting deputy secretary.
- 18. March 2020: General Counsel Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Jason Klitenic
- 19. March 2, 2020: Director of Policy and Strategic Planning Earl Comstock
- 20. March 6, 2020: staffer in several Trump administration positions Adam Kennedy
- 21. March 30, 2020: White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney
APRIL 2020
- 22. April 2020: Chief of Staff to the First Lady Lindsay Reynolds
- 23. April 2020: Inspector General of the Intelligence Community Michael Atkinson
- 24. April 7, 2020: United States Department of the Navy Secretary Thomas Modly [reassigned after his vulgar display and removal of a naval officer who had reported infectious disease threat to sailors aboard ship USS Theodore Roosevelt]
- 25. April 7, 2020: Department of Defense Inspector General Glenn Fine
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gain the flailing Trump Hammer fell
This public servant has been praised as “a public servant in the finest
tradition of honest, competent governance.” But the flailing mercantile
mercenary fired him less than ten days after hiring him.
Philadelphia area Cheltenham, Pennsylvania-native Glenn Alan Fine’s resume
reads like this:
- · Economics AB and Juris Doctor (JD) from Harvard University and Harvard Law School (1979 and 1985, respectively)
- · Assistant United States attorney for the Washington, DC, US Attorney’s Office - 1986 to 1989 and private law practice in Washington, DC; director of the Office of Inspector General’s Special Investigations and Review Unit
- · Special Counsel to the US Department of Justice Inspector General - January 1995 to 1996; Inspector General of the Department of Justice - December 2000 – January 2011
- · Acting (2015) then principal deputy Inspector General of the US Department of Defense - January 14, 2016 – April 7, 2020
- · Chair of the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee [an ad hoc committee] March 30, 2020 – April 7, 2020
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lephants don’t belong in china shops as that which is precious should never
be entrusted to plunderers, con men, and bankrupters; to individuals unsuited to
public service, and glaringly unfit for the purpose of serving the public good.
The public is faced with having to set critical priorities—
· matters directly bearing on physical (even mental) health in a pandemic; and
· “the latest iteration of a long-established presidential pattern of narcissistically-motivated abuses of the presidential appointment power.”
Brookings fellow and Lawfare editor Benjamin Wittes writes that
President “Trump is counting on public distraction to give himself political
space for activity that would have been much more scandalous only a few weeks
ago.
“There’s nothing quite like a global cataclysm to distract
the public from mere presidential abuse and corruption,” he writes.
With “nary a peep” from other political leaders, the president
has been allowed to get away with “normalizing” what is far from normal:
“the hiring and removal of investigative and intelligence
officials on the basis of whether or not they will deliver the goods the
president wants, and whether or not they pose [are perceived by him to pose] a
political threat to him.”
Benjamin Wittes’s prism sees but one alternative and a
continuing regression paved by a prevailing tyranny of two. I see differently.
In my view, the body politic
must stop begging and rise nobly from the ashes, or from their knees. Find and
field leaders who are able — intellectually, experientially, and ethically; men
and women who have demonstrated that they are genuine servants of the country
and its people.
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Elephants, donkeys, and monkeys are not our only choices.
Sources
Wikipedia. “Michael Atkinson (Inspector General).” Latest update April
8, 2020. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Atkinson_(Inspector_General)
Press TV news. April 6, 2020: “Ousted US intelligence inspector
Atkinson calls on others to defend whistleblowers.”
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/04/06/622421/US-Donlad-Trump-Michael-Atkinson-intelligence-community-inspector-general
Wittes, Benjamin “Why Is Trump’s Inspector General Purge Not
a National Scandal?” Lawfare. April
8, 2020. https://www.lawfareblog.com/why-trumps-inspector-general-purge-not-national-scandal
Benjamin Wittes is editor in chief of Lawfare, an author, and a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution.
Wikipedia. “List of Trump administration dismissals and resignations.” Latest
update April 8, 2020. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Trump_administration_dismissals_and_resignations
Insight Beyond Today’s News, CLB - © All Rights
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