Civil Commotion

Here comes Dorian, and bad news for Puerto Rico and Florida.

… have viewed some of the same movies on Netlix, including the one about the geeky kid who knew an epochal storm was coming and rescued his hometown at the last minute by persuading the Air Force to drop a powerful bomb on it.

No. The only thing that dropping a nuclear bomb on a hurricane would accomplish is spreading radioactivity across a colossal area, with the result that a lot of Americans would have to recover from a hurricane while dying of radiation poisoning.

I marvel. Honestly, I just … marvel … at the ignorance of the man. And, as Thomas Jefferson once said, “I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just.”

As a Foreign Service officer, your job is to support the administration. Without exception. Despite my personal views, I spent more than two years working to carry out the administration’s immigration and foreign policy priorities. I continued to do so until the very minute I handed in my badge and headed to the airport.

But on Friday, I cleared immigration and officially returned to life as a private citizen. And today I have a new challenge: putting my time and energy into helping elect new leadership that serves the true interests of all Americans, regardless of where they were born.

Bethany Milton, former Foreign Service officer

I wrote more than 2-years ago that genuine-article professionals would find themselves in an impossible situation in this grossly incompetent and unprofessional administration.

Today, tens of thousands of professionals employed by the federal government are asking themselves: Should I stay, or should I go?

A column by Ross Douthat in Friday’s New York Times says, basically, “Stay. A minority of Americans have somehow contrived to elect an expedient ignoramus who is deeply hostile to your country’s ideals, and now your country needs you more than ever.” A column by David Leonhardt in today’s New York Times echoes Douthat’s argument.

We need your professionalism, your expertise, your respect for democratic norms and American values. Stay on. Stay on, please, for your country.

Well.

Certainly, I agree that we have elected an incompetent and ignorant proto-fascist with the instincts of a cheap thug. I sharply disagree that an honorable professional can or should serve under his administration.

All professional people are expected to abide by some variation of that famous injunction of the Hippocratic Oath: First, do no harm

I can understand how people get sucked into staying at bad companies and working for incompetent administrations. “My customers/clients/wannabe-immigrants need me. I just have to hold on till the next administration,” or “I just have to hold on till the stockholders come to their senses.”

Nope. All you can accomplish by hanging-on is soiling yourself. Congratulations! to Ms. Milton, then, for recognizing that a decent adult cannot serve this government, and resolving to work toward replacing it with something better.

This is obvious fiction. I know people who will probably believe it, however.

Clearly, the First Felon has an overly grand view of his authority, and a strong case can be made that he is undergoing a mental breakdown. Oh, to be a fly on the wall at this weekend’s G7 … perhaps our friends, knowing that America is better than Trump, and that the Republican Party has degenerated into a pack of shameless whores, will stage an intervention.