Trump's transition team "did not show up"

[Yavin4]

There’s a scene in Michael Lewis’ book, The Fifth Risk, about President Donald Trump’s takeover of the federal government that I can’t forget. It takes place in the offices of the Department of Energy on November 9, 2016, the day after Trump unexpectedly beat Hillary Clinton to win the presidential election. Most people don’t know what the Department of Energy does—Lewis didn’t before starting work on this book—but one of its central missions is safeguarding the U.S. nuclear arsenal and combating nuclear proliferation, so it’s pretty important. If you’re running for president, you, or at least someone who works for you, should know what the Department of Energy (DOE) does.

So, on the morning of November 9, department staffers awaited the arrival of Trump emissaries, as they did when President Obama was elected, and President Bush before him, and President Clinton before him, and so on. They had already cleared 30 desks and 30 parking space... This is what people who work in the federal government do when a new president is elected; they pivot, and they work for a new president.

Then a funny thing happened. Nobody came. Not on the first day, not the second. Even stranger, the same was true across the federal government. The people who actually did the work of the government agencies—Energy, Labor, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Commerce and so on—waited for their new leadership, but it simply…didn’t show up.

Over the next weeks and months, as the Trump people slowly inched their way into the offices of government agencies, they typically arrived either ignorant of the work of that agency or hostile to it, frequently both.

https://www.worth.com/the-book-that-predicted-president-trumps-coronavirus-response/

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

1. That's a book everyone should read.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. I read that book. It was so depressing.

It will take years and years to repair what Trump has broken.

[BigmanPigman]

6. My mother predicts about 30+ years.

I am afraid that is a realistic prediction.

[Journeyman]

9. Well, it took about 70 years to build it the first time, counting from after The War . . .

so 30+ years may unfortunately be very close to the mark, but maybe less, given we have a blueprint of what "should be" to work from.

[unblock]

3. It's almost as if they were actually working for Russia against American interests.

Hmmmmm....

[rainin]

8. Funny how that's the only explanation that explains

everything he does. Yet, most people simply can't say it out loud. They have to believe tRump is just ignorant, or malicious, or inexperienced, or sociopathic. He's all of these things, but his decisions ALWAYS harm America and frequently help Russia.

He is working for Putin. Full stop. I suspect Moscow Mitch is, too.

[DENVERPOPS]

11. It is not

"as If they were working for the Russians"

It has been flagrantly obvious from the very first of the Trump pResidency, for anyone with their eyes open........

[tblue37]

4. K&R for visibility. nt

[Hestia]

5. WHY THE SCARIEST NUCLEAR THREAT MAY BE COMING FROM INSIDE THE WHITE HOUSE

WHY THE SCARIEST NUCLEAR THREAT MAY BE COMING FROM INSIDE THE WHITE HOUSE

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/07/department-of-energy-risks-michael-lewis

Donald Drumpf’s secretary of energy, Rick Perry, once campaigned to abolish the $30 billion agency that he now runs, which oversees everything from our nuclear arsenal to the electrical grid. The department’s budget is now on the chopping block. But does anyone in the White House really understand what the Department of Energy actually does? And what a horrible risk it would be to ignore its extraordinary, life-or-death responsibilities?

BY MICHAEL LEWIS

JULY 26, 2017


This is original article that he wrote before his book. It goes into much more detail that just DoE. (As aside, Liberal Redneck used to work at DoE)

[DENVERPOPS]

14. This does not make me more comfortable

with what I have read about the Hanover? nuclear site in Washington state......

That site's extremely poor condition should worry everyone, even if we had the best people working on it, and giving them as much money as they need to correct it. And it's threat is getting worse with every single day that nothing is done.....

[John Fante]

7. They're just as amateurish now as the day Dickhead

took office.

[murielm99]

10. I do know.

My son works for the DOE.

[Poiuyt]

12. Hostile to the agencies

It seemed like trump was only appointing people who were actively antagonistic to the agencies to which they were appointed, e.g. Betsy DeVos wanted to privatize the public schools, etc.

[ffr]

13. DoE, who cares! Russians, I mean, republicans only care about the U.S. Treasury

Just like the looters they are.

[Hekate]

15. KnR

[Skittles]

16. BUT.....HER EMAILS

fuck EVERYONE who helped to put that incompetent piece of SHIT into the White House, FUCK THEM ALL

[oswaldactedalone]

17. What Skittles said

Times one million.

[calimary]

19. Times a trillion!

We still refer to that one particular MSNBC anchor-irritant as Andrea “oh but her emails” Mitchell.

[7wo7rees]

18. I think I am feeling incredibly not well..... n/t

[crickets]

20. No words. K&R