The Accountant

Proud Dad | Financial Stuff | Tech | Climate | Decency | Voter

[The Accountant @LinkedHD]

@AdamKinzinger @WildWestShow4 😂

[The Accountant @LinkedHD]

@ProfBillMcGuire This chart is frightening

[The Accountant @LinkedHD]

@WeatherProf Yikes

[The Accountant @LinkedHD]

@ClimateBen This chart is scary

[Miles Taylor @MilesTaylorUSA]

Yesterday Donald Trump tripled the size of his personal political army inside the government. Illegally. And almost no one noticed.

Here's what happened:

He signed an order converting ~8,000 of the most senior career officials in government into employees he can fire for any reason, or no reason at all.

These aren't rando's. They're the directors, chiefs of staff, and the people who write the rules or decide who gets federal money, i.e. the lieutenants right below his political appointees.

Until yesterday, they answered to the law. Now they answer to him.

A president normally gets ~4,000 political appointees. People he can bring into government and fire at will. I was one of them at DHS. You serve at his pleasure, full stop -- so if you're gonna speak truth to power, you're prepared to quit (or get fired if he doesn't like it).

The rest of the federal government is PROTECTED from firing if they tell the truth.

But Trump just stripped those protections. Adding 8,000 more people to his personal army. Overnight. Without asking Congress.

With the stroke of a pen, those people now serve at the pleasure of the president. They're "his" people, whether they like it or not.

And the chilling effect is real. An official who can be fired this afternoon for "subversion of presidential directives" (the order's own words) doesn't need to be hand-picked to know what's expected of him or her.

The threat does all the work.

By the way, this order is illegal. The law only lets Trump reclassify jobs when "necessary" in exceptional circumstances. And this blows an 8,000-person hole in the merit hiring / firing system created by Congress.

Without permission, Trump has created a whole new category of stormtroopers inside the Executive Branch.

If this doesn't get challenged in court, you're going to see the U.S. government become a very different place.

Here's the full story: https://t.co/mJzrvzhxGR

[The Accountant @LinkedHD]

@AntiToxicPeople Fox News is reporting that he is bruised and tired from shaking too many hands.

[The Accountant @LinkedHD]

@HQNewsNow @WhiteHouse This might be part of “the weave” he talked about a few years ago.

[The Accountant @LinkedHD]

@TerryMoran @aintscarylarry He shook a lot of hands today, so he’s bruised and tired.

[The Accountant @LinkedHD]

@nickmmark According to Fox News, everything is totally cool and normal.

[The Accountant @LinkedHD]

@covie_93 @WellesleyRock Excellent point

[The Accountant @LinkedHD]

@lara_korte @cow_belle65 Looks like Iowa

[Prof. Stefan Rahmstorf 🌏 🦣 @rahmstorf]

I'm afraid that this is why the US administration wants to shut down ocean observations: they don't want the people to know what is happening in our oceans, as it does not fit their ideology and the interests of their fossil fuel industry funders.

https://t.co/G1E5zXdyid

[Dark Hunter Brandon @darkhunterbrndn]

I gotta level with you folks,

My dad's 1967 Corvette Stingray was a wedding gift from my grandfather.
Just like Melania was a wedding gift to Trump from Jeffery Epstein

[No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen @NoLieWithBTC]

Marco Rubio yesterday: “I have never seen Trump fall asleep.”

[The Accountant @LinkedHD]

Run to the light , Donald…run…

[Adam Kinzinger (Slava Ukraini) 🇺🇸🇺🇦 @AdamKinzinger]

Poor guy is just exhausted. He’s spent. Empty vessel. Gonzo. Vacant.

[The Accountant @LinkedHD]

@HunterBiden @thedesertginger @TheStefanSmith This is 10/10

[Hunter Biden @HunterBiden]

You caught them. Mom and Dad were going to sell bibles and cell phones, golden sneakers, and NFTs, Chinese watches and cologne but wouldn’t you know someone beat them to the punch. They were left with only one choice write two books like every former First Lady and President has done in modern history.

[Ted Lieu @tedlieu]

cc: @SecRubio

[The Accountant @LinkedHD]

@doggintrump Not enough

[Hunter Biden @HunterBiden]

The only business I engaged in was selling my paintings. I averaged about $225k per year in income over the 4 years of my Dad’s presidency. Now you may be outraged by that but where is your outrage over Don Jr opening a private members club next to the White House called the Executive Branch club where the stated purpose is to rub shoulders with senior White House officials and Cabinet members. And the initiation fee is $500,000. Where is your outrage over Peter Navarro calling from inside the WH to push the Pentagon to grant the largest loan it has ever made to any company for a rare earth startup backed by Don Jr. Where is your outrage when Donald Trump took a Boeing 747 from the government of Qatar. Four hundred million dollars. Over a billion dollars in tax payer money for upgrades. The most valuable gift any foreign government has ever given the United States. And when he leaves office, it goes to his library.
He sued his own IRS for ten billion dollars and settled. And the settlement declares the IRS, and I am quoting the filing here, is “forever barred” from pursuing its audits of him, his family, and his companies.