The State Department’s entire senior management team just resigned
45 replies, posted
[QUOTE]Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s job running the State Department just got considerably more difficult. The entire senior level of management officials resigned Wednesday, part of an ongoing mass exodus of senior foreign service officers who don’t want to stick around for the Trump era.
Tillerson was actually inside the State Department’s headquarters in Foggy Bottom on Wednesday, taking meetings and getting the lay of the land. I reported Wednesday morning that the Trump team was narrowing its search for his No. 2 and three officials, and that it was looking to replace the State Department’s long-serving undersecretary for management, Patrick Kennedy. Kennedy, who has been in that job for nine years, was actively involved in the transition and was angling to keep that job under Tillerson, three State Department officials told me.
Then suddenly on Wednesday afternoon, Kennedy and three of his top officials resigned unexpectedly, four State Department officials confirmed. Assistant Secretary of State for Administration Joyce Anne Barr, Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Michele Bond and Ambassador Gentry O. Smith, director of the Office of Foreign Missions, followed him out the door. All are career foreign service officers who have served under both Republican and Democratic administrations.
In addition, Assistant Secretary of State for Diplomatic Security Gregory Starr retired Jan. 20, and the director of the Bureau of Overseas Building Operations, Lydia Muniz, departed the same day. That amounts to a near-complete housecleaning of all the senior officials that deal with managing the State Department, its overseas posts and its people.
“It’s the single biggest simultaneous departure of institutional memory that anyone can remember, and that’s incredibly difficult to replicate,” said David Wade, who served as State Department chief of staff under Secretary of State John Kerry. “Department expertise in security, management, administrative and consular positions in particular are very difficult to replicate and particularly difficult to find in the private sector.”[/QUOTE]
[url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/josh-rogin/wp/2017/01/26/the-state-departments-entire-senior-management-team-just-resigned/?utm_term=.0dc6e01044ab]Source[/url]
Get out before the ship sinks
I love it. I can't wait to see what department follows their precedent.
That's a big brain drain
With every day, America sinks further into the morass.
There should just be a mass exodus of all senior Washington staff. They should shutdown government.
Drain the swamp!
[QUOTE=Shadow801;51729984]There should just be a mass exodus of all senior Washington staff. They should shutdown government.[/QUOTE]
This lasts until Trump replaces whoever leaves with his bought and paid for brainless minions, then we're completely fucked.
[QUOTE=Llamaguy;51729985]Drain the swamp![/QUOTE]
No, burn the whole ship!
And so, the era of "Sod this, I'm going for a Twix" begins.
This does not sound like a good thing. Senior staff jumping ship seems to me like it would leave a lot of openings for even more questionable individuals in senior positions
[QUOTE=Sitkero;51730006]This does not sound like a good thing. Senior staff jumping ship seems to me like it would leave a lot of openings for even more questionable individuals in senior positions[/QUOTE]
What prevents change is the ,"frozen middle". This opens up the chance for more things to change.
[QUOTE=Sitkero;51730006]This does not sound like a good thing. Senior staff jumping ship seems to me like it would leave a lot of openings for even more questionable individuals in senior positions[/QUOTE]
Not to mention the fact that replacing managers piecemeal is one thing, while rebuilding a department's management structure from the ground up is another entirely.
I have a feeling the State Department's capabilities are going to be severely degraded by this turn of events.
This combined with Trump's insane foreign policy stances are going to rock the planet's geopolitical standing I feel.
[QUOTE=Llamaguy;51729985]Drain the swamp![/QUOTE]
Sink into the swamp!
Gonna be hard to fill these spots with the federal hiring freeze, won't it?
[QUOTE=Zonesylvania;51729996]This lasts until Trump replaces whoever leaves with his bought and paid for brainless minions, then we're completely fucked.[/QUOTE]
civil servents, trump has little say over the hiring process
[QUOTE=Llamaguy;51729985]Drain the swamp![/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=Guriosity;51730002]No, burn the whole ship![/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=Cliff2;51730098]Sink into the swamp![/QUOTE]
[video]https://youtu.be/aNaXdLWt17A[/video]
Immediately thought of this.
On topic however, this will send ripples through whatever infrastructure was there, at this point we can truly only watch as people disperse from the ship
[QUOTE=RingoMandingo;51730236][video]https://youtu.be/aNaXdLWt17A[/video]
Immediately thought of this.
On topic however, this will send ripples through whatever infrastructure was there, at this point we can truly only watch as people disperse from the ship[/QUOTE]
When a house catches fire, people are forced to make changes. Even Hillary "will it solve racism" Clinton who was invested in the status quo would be forced to fix the who!e thing and be of actual service if they wanna benift from office.
[QUOTE=Llamaguy;51730184]Gonna be hard to fill these spots with the federal hiring freeze, won't it?[/QUOTE]
Not really, it just means the people below them have the possibility of advancement now.
[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;51730310]Not really, it just means the people below them have the possibility of advancement now.[/QUOTE]
And who's going to replace them?
[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;51730310]Not really, it just means the people below them have the possibility of advancement now.[/QUOTE]
Still leaves a hole which cannot be filled due to his own executive order
[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;51730310]Not really, it just means the people below them have the possibility of advancement now.[/QUOTE]
Ha? I'm afraid the federal government doesn't work like a corporate ladder. Not only that, but Trump's recent executive order stops that from happening even if it was, doesn't it?
[QUOTE=ZachPL;51730486][media]https://twitter.com/AP_Politics/status/824668405710069761[/media][/QUOTE]
guess that wall plan ain't going so hot
[QUOTE=ZachPL;51730486][media]https://twitter.com/AP_Politics/status/824668405710069761[/media][/QUOTE]
THE WALL JUST GOT TEN FEET SHORTER
[QUOTE=ZachPL;51730486][media]https://twitter.com/AP_Politics/status/824668405710069761[/media][/QUOTE]
How much longer until he just outright backpedals on the shitty wall and goes back to calling it a metaphor?
"Drain the swamp" they shout, ignoring the fact that senior departmental staffers tend to serve presidents across multiple presidencies, and none of them get to decide policy.
[QUOTE=Guriosity;51730043]What prevents change is the ,"frozen middle". This opens up the chance for more things to change.[/QUOTE]
Change for the sake of change isn't good. I know you're an Accelerationist (quite possibly the stupidest "movement" on earth next to Objectivism), but you can't fix stuff by just causing it to fail faster. That doesn't work. Instead millions of people suffer severely under rapidly decreasing societal conditions, dying and falling ill.
The people least affected by this? Unsurprisingly it's the top few percent, the guys with the money and means to just fucking leave. Leaving people with no qualification or capacity to do so in charge of the mess left over.
"The frozen middle" is stability that is much needed in society. You encourage change in chunks so society actually gets to stabilise again, you don't try and break everything with the hopes that "eh maybe next time will be better". Entire departments just quitting causes instability, promotes dangerous speculation and allows for them to be replaced by more "fitting" cronies of the Tangerine in Chief.
[QUOTE=hexpunK;51730776]Change for the sake of change isn't good. I know you're an Accelerationist (quite possibly the stupidest "movement" on earth next to Objectivism), but you can't fix stuff by just causing it to fail faster. That doesn't work. Instead millions of people suffer severely under rapidly decreasing societal conditions, dying and falling ill.
The people least affected by this? Unsurprisingly it's the top few percent, the guys with the money and means to just fucking leave. Leaving people with no qualification or capacity to do so in charge of the mess left over.
"The frozen middle" is stability that is much needed in society. You encourage change in chunks so society actually gets to stabilise again, you don't try and break everything with the hopes that "eh maybe next time will be better". Entire departments just quitting causes instability, promotes dangerous speculation and allows for them to be replaced by more "fitting" cronies of the Tangerine in Chief.[/QUOTE]
The thing that causing decline in society is polarization and corporate power. The Richie riches play the common person off each other with this left right crap to keep power thus not held unaccountable.
Fix this and I'll change my position. But I'm betting you won't.
[QUOTE=Guriosity;51730257]When a house catches fire, people are forced to make changes. Even Hillary "will it solve racism" Clinton who was invested in the status quo would be forced to fix the who!e thing and be of actual service if they wanna benift from office.[/QUOTE]
this accelerationist attitude is bullshit and you know it
can you name even one instance in history where "burning it down and rebuilding it" did anything but put dictators in power and lead to chaos and death?
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