And it is not going to be pretty. I guess.
In case, you don’t get the reference, Anthony Scaramucci was the White House press secretary - briefly - I believe, between Sean Spicer and Sarah Huckabee Sanders. He had the job for approximately 10 days when he must have been caught scarlet-handed doing something not even this administration could tolerate or spin - or - he had a crisis of conscience - or - he was needed for some other mob gig. I really don’t know that much about him or the circumstances and, at the moment, I am too lazy to search for the answer.
I DO know that - eventually - he had a come to Jesus moment because he has been cheerleading hard against the regime.
It’s telling how much of a national nightmare we’re living because - off the top of my head - I can reference and name the White House press secretaries. For those of you born in this century, or close enough, I want to reassure you that, this too, is unprecedented. I should not know the names of every press secretary in an administration! There have been administrations where the vice president sometimes blends into the background. In a more typical administration, press secretaries have not risen to the level of national consciousness these characters have.
Yesterday, while driving through the town of Wenatchee, I passed by one of those flags - another fucking aspect of this administration and its adherents that is atypical and, frankly, aggressive - that read: Tr*mp 2020 No More Bullshit. Have you seen them?
No More Bullshit. Huh.
From where I have stood, there has been little other than bullshit. So much so, I am beginning to wonder if we are not living a Mark Burnett production of some sort. Mark Burnett produced The Celebrity Apprentice and Survivor, and probably a bunch of other fantasy/reality television shows that Americans lap up like they were sugar-coated breakfast cereals. He wanted to produce a reality television show with Vladimir Putin.
Or so I have read.
Somewhere.
Don’t quote me.
You could say, thanks to Mark Burnett, we have the blithering creature who currently squats in the White House. Rumor has it Mark Burnett sits on a treasure trove of outtakes like the infamous “grab’em by the pussy” video which was about the hundredth political death knell this guy waltzed past during his original presidential bid. Rumor has it Mark Burnett - a very close friend to this president - would rather die attempting to take Gallipoli than release these tapes.
I have no idea what his concern might be. The No More Bullshit flag wavers would just have all the more reason to love the guy.
What if we’re living another Mark Burnett production and right now we’re in the midst of the “plotting a coup in broad daylight with several over-the-top, washed up, two-bit actors from central casting”? Maybe these will be the outtakes from the reality television show called the One Term Loser President. Maybe this is all part of the greatest political infomercial ever made Michael Cohen was talking about in the Congressional hearings.
Does anyone have a better explanation?
It’s wild. I’ve come full circle from back sometime in 2015 when my theory was this faux billionaire sexagenarian playboy was a stalking horse in the Republican field of candidates. I firmly believe he is a useful idiot or tool of the Russians yet, at the same time, it is monstrously difficult for anyone to truly wrap their minds about what that means if it is true. How could our vaunted political system allow that to happen?
No matter what happens in the next three Scaramuccis, America has been broken. It’s cracks, fissures, divides and chasms on a multitude of levels has been exposed.
When this administration first slithered into Washington, D.C., we were only talking about a failing infrastructure in those terms. Now it is clear those fractures exist in every aspect of our society.
Anthony Scaramucci came and went in the blink of an eye. Saturday Night Live barely had a chance to caricature him. Here’s hoping the next month flashes by so we can get on to healing, rebuilding, patching and mending.
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I’ve had my head in the sand lately and were it not for updates from the historian Heather Cox Richardson, I would know next to nothing. I hope those of you who are interested in the nitty-gritty daily details of what’s going on politically have signed up for her newsletter. Her synopses, by the title Letters From an American, are superior to all news outlets.
Also, the former director of the Office of Government Ethics, Walter Shaub, had THIS to say about the shenanigans of the past weekend. And, I apologize, but I thought I should include it in its entirety:
I want to tell you something — and God help us all if I’m wrong. As we go to bed wondering if Tr*mp might act on his desire to overthrow the government, I tell you I’m not afraid. I’m not afraid because I have faith in the patriots who stand in his way. Let’s talk about them.
These are career civilian public servants, military officers and enlisted personnel who have taken an oath of allegiance to the Constitution. To an outsider, that may sound old fashioned, but they stand beside a flag, with their right hand raised, and they recite the oath.
I have personally administered this oath to some of these patriots. They take it seriously. This isn’t some Human Resources ritual like signing the employee manual. This is a pledge of allegiance to a nation of, by and for the people. They mean it.
Their allegiance is to this nation and not to some politician temporarily residing in government housing at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. That’s why Tr*mp hates them and lives in terror of some imaginary “deep state.” Their loyalty is alien and scary to people like Tr*mp and Bannon.
Those two have cause to be scared, but not for the reason they think. This workforce is NOT, as they fantasize, trying to undermine Tr*mp. Its members are trying to defend the Constitution, uphold the rule of law, and adhere to the government’s ethical principles.
(Side note: those ethical principles were written down by George H. W. Bush, so this is not some “liberal plot.”) That orientation toward faithful service makes them dangerous to a corrupter like Tr*mp and an authoritarian “nationalist” (wink) like Bannon.
You see, the most important government ethics rules are the civil service rules that protect career public servants. Those rules don’t exist for the benefit of federal employees. They exist for our benefit. They make it possible to refuse illegal orders & report wrongdoing.
I’m not just talking about whistleblower laws, though those are part of this system. I’m also talking about the laws that give federal officials appeal rights if they’re fired. As for the military, I’m talking about a system that rigidly rejects politicizing their work.
These public servants are literally our last line of defense against an authoritarian. That’s worth thinking about. Nobody believes Tr*mp’s aides said he can’t launch a coup because they thought it would be wrong. They said it because they knew career officials would refuse.
The career civilian and uniformed public servants would refuse to carry out the orders to facilitate his coup. Then, if they’re lucky, Tr*mp’s aides would all go to jail for the rest of their lives.
But what if this workforce were loyal to Tr*mp instead of to America? In that case, he could — and most certainly would — put an end to the republic. That is why he has railed against the phantasmagoric “deep state” and vilified public servants for four years.
His minions have expended much effort looking for the levers of power, the means to crush the civil service. They finally found a very significant lever in late October and prepared to gut key parts of the civil service. But it was too late.
The clock ran out — this time.
But the next Republican administration will have Tr*mp’s playbook and many of the same advisors. They’ll pick up where he left off. Then, the republic will face an even greater threat than it faces now—unless we shore up civil service protections.
That’s why I’m not worried about our clumsy authoritarian tonight but am focused on preventing a future one from succeeding where he failed. That begins by acknowledging the debt we owe to the civilian and uniformed public servants standing between us and authoritarianism.
We should let these patriots know we SEE them honoring the oath. We should support efforts to add new civil service protections, as a means of guarding the rule of law. We should call out those who amplify Republican attacks on public servants.
We should encourage smart people with strong ethical values to go into government and serve their country where they are most needed. And we should thank our lucky stars that so many have already answered that call. Their fidelity to the oath is why I’ll sleep well tonight.
In addition, we need some LEVITY! Thanks to alert ass reader, Steve Laboff, we have some. Please watch this. It’s spot on.
Thanks everyone! If my columns are spotty over the next couple of Scaramuccis, blame it on the holidays! Y’all need a break anyhow. - JLM