Copolla's new film Megopolis opens with: Our Amercian republic is not unlike old Rome. Can we preserve our past and all its wonderous heritage? Or will we too fall victim, like old Rome to the insatiable appetite for power of a few men.
An apparently flippant statement, but do you sincerely hold to this? Career civil servants are the backbone of government. What's going to happen when every admin is swapping out tens of thousands of them as political appointees? They can be cumbersome to work through but that is not a bad thing much of the time.
I absolutely hold to it. These folks have long stopped working for the people and only serve to feed the beast.
I'd suggest stepping back from gung-ho and consider what the political polarization, loss of genuine expertise, inability to sustain long term projects will bring.
Trump's official plans from his advisors. Yeah, they are pretty much a photocopy of Project 2025. “Put Them in Trauma”: Inside a Key MAGA Leader’s Plans for a New Trump Agenda https://www.propublica.org/article/video-donald-trump-russ-vought-center-renewing-america-maga “In Trauma”: A key Trump adviser says a Trump administration will seek to make civil servants miserable in their jobs. Military: In private speeches, he laid out plans to use armed forces to quell any domestic “riots.” 1776 and 1860: He likened the country’s moment to those fractious periods in American history. A key ally to former President Donald Trump detailed plans to deploy the military in response to domestic unrest, defund the Environmental Protection Agency and put career civil servants “in trauma” in a series of previously unreported speeches that provide a sweeping vision for a second Trump term. In private speeches delivered in 2023 and 2024, Russell Vought, who served as Trump’s director of the Office of Management and Budget, described his work crafting legal justifications so that military leaders or government lawyers would not stop Trump’s executive actions. He said the plans are a response to a “Marxist takeover” of the country; likened the moment to 1776 and 1860, when the country was at war or on the brink of it; and said the timing of Trump’s candidacy was a “gift of God.” ProPublica and Documented obtained videos of the two speeches Vought delivered during events for the Center for Renewing America, a pro-Trump think tank led by Vought. The think tank’s employees or fellows include Jeffrey Clark, the former senior Justice Department lawyer who aided Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election result; Ken Cuccinelli, a former acting deputy secretary in the Department of Homeland Security under Trump; and Mark Paoletta, a former senior budget official in the Trump administration. Other Trump allies such as former White House adviser Steve Bannon and U.S. Reps. Chip Roy and Scott Perry either spoke at the conferences or appeared on promotional materials for the events. Vought does not hide his agenda or shy away from using extreme rhetoric in public. But the apocalyptic tone and hard-line policy prescriptions in the two private speeches go further than his earlier pronouncements. As OMB director, Vought sought to use Trump’s 2020 “Schedule F” executive order to strip away job protections for nonpartisan government workers. But he has never spoken in such pointed terms about demoralizing federal workers to the point that they don’t want to do their jobs. He has spoken in broad terms about undercutting independent agencies but never spelled out sweeping plans to defund the EPA and other federal agencies. Vought’s plans track closely with Trump’s campaign rhetoric about using the military against domestic protesters or what Trump has called the “enemy within.” Trump’s desire to use the military on U.S. soil recently prompted his longest-serving chief of staff, retired Marine Gen. John Kelly, to speak out, saying Trump “certainly prefers the dictator approach to government.” Other policies mentioned by Vought dovetail with Trump’s plans, such as embracing a wartime footing on the southern border and rolling back transgender rights. Agenda 47, the campaign’s policy blueprint, calls for revoking President Joe Biden’s order expanding gender-affirming care for transgender people; Vought uses even more extreme language, decrying the “transgender sewage that’s being pumped into our schools and institutions” and referring to gender-affirming care as “chemical castration.” Since leaving government, Vought has reportedly remained a close ally of the former president. Speaking in July to undercover journalists posing as relatives of a potential donor, Vought said Trump had “blessed” the Center for Renewing America and was “very supportive of what we do,” CNN reported. (More at above url including videos)
Some commentary on the above article from ProPublica. Leaked Videos Show Project 2025’s Architect Calling for a MAGA Takeover of the Federal Government “We have detailed agency plans,” Russell Vought bragged in a 2024 speech. “We are writing the actual executive orders. We are writing the actual regulations now.” https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/russell-vought-project-2025-videos/
'Put that everywhere': Steve Bannon admits 'Project 2025 is the agenda' after Trump wins https://www.rawstory.com/steve-bannon-project-2025-admission/
So dumb. As usual. https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattv...s-the-stupidity-of-lib-media-outlets-n2647478
looking forward to people complaining about government services when all these agencies are closed and civil servants fired. It's ok to trim some fat from bloated payrolls but to wipe out entire agencies and Departments....good luck with that. Most states cannot even handle the services they are supposed to, imagine when the trump administration wipes out an agency and tells the states to go handle that themselves. It is easy to whip out an election slogan to ignorant masses "I will get rid of the D of E or the IRS or the FDA" as though they do nothing for the general public but because you hate a policy, throw them all out completely!