We've Seen Nothing Yet

As author of TrumpNation and Bloomberg News columnist, Timothy O'Brien knows a lot about Donald Trump. Last Tuesday, he summarized Donald Trump's career- discriminating against blacks in rental properties, driving casinos into bankruptcy, laundering money, committing fraud, cavorting with the mob. Most recently, with Representative Devin Nunes and the cross-dressing Rudy Giuliani, he has been actively undermining faith of the American people in the Justice Department.

But two days later, O'Brien explained that the President has not been undermining only the Justice Department:

Worth noting the obvious: President Trump is using the same tactics against law enforcement, intel agencies, civil service and the judiciary that he deploys against the media — trying to discredit all of them so institutions that question or check his power are undermined. https://t.co/m799M4PZzZ

— Tim O'Brien (@TimOBrien) May 23, 2018

Attacks on the Judiciary, federal law enforcement, and the media are more obvious, in part because they are covered more fully. However, Politico has reported

President Donald Trump on Friday issued a series of executive orders to weaken the influence of government unions and make it easier for agencies to fire civil servants.

The orders will standardize agency rules to make it easier and quicker to remove poorly performing employees. They also direct federal agencies to renegotiate their labor contracts and cap the amount of paid time that workers can take off to conduct union-related business.

But we learn that this is not only a standard Trump attack on the middle class because

The largest federal employee union condemned Friday’s orders.

“This is more than union busting — it’s democracy busting,” said J. David Cox Sr., president of the American Federation of Government Employees. “This administration seems hellbent on replacing a civil service that works for all taxpayers with a political service that serves at its whim.”

In addition to hemming in union power, the executive orders could be abused to reduce accountability or punish whistleblowers, said Nick Schwellenbach, director of investigations at the nonprofit Project on Government Oversight.

“Weakening civil service protection laws would make the government less effective and put us all at risk, “ he said. “It would impede Congress’s ability to conduct oversight of the executive branch: Congress’s best sources of information are the employees inside agencies, and without robust protections and due process, more sources will remain silent.”

If you go to an accommodating ice cream parlor and ask about a certain flavor, you'll be offered a taste of it.  Curious about a style of beer at a brewpub, you may be offered a sample. In each category O'Brien cites, President Trump is giving us a mere taste or sample of what would come after January, 2021.  

In 1974, Randy Bachman wrote as a joke a song which somehow became Bachman-Turner Overdrive's #1 hit.  The message is completely unrelated. Nonetheless, accidentally and absent our notice, its title would become the operating principle of the 45th President of the USA.

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