Going to be a big door swinging in Washington DC

[Coyote]

This article was posted in another thread. It deserves it's own thread. What an incredibly petty, callous and vindictive thing to do - upending people's lives just because you can? Seriously?

In Break With Precedent, Obama Envoys Are Denied Extensions Past Inauguration Day

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald J. Trump’s transition staff has issued a blanket edict requiring politically appointed ambassadors to leave their overseas posts by Inauguration Day, according to several American diplomats familiar with the plan, breaking with decades of precedent by declining to provide even the briefest of grace periods.

The mandate — issued “without exceptions,” according to a terse State Department cable sent on Dec. 23, diplomats who saw it said — threatens to leave the United States without Senate-confirmed envoys for months in critical nations like Germany, Canada and Britain. In the past, administrations of both parties have often granted extensions on a case-by-case basis to allow a handful of ambassadors, particularly those with school-age children, to remain in place for weeks or months.

...A senior Trump transition official said there was no ill will in the move, describing it as a simple matter of ensuring that Mr. Obama’s overseas appointees leave the government on schedule, just as thousands of political aides at the White House and in federal agencies must do. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity about internal deliberations, said the ambassadors should not be surprised about being held to a hard end date.

The directive has nonetheless upended the personal lives of many ambassadors, who are scrambling to secure living arrangements and acquire visas allowing them to remain in their countries so their children can remain in school, the diplomats said. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly on the matter.

W. Robert Pearson, a former ambassador to Turkey and a scholar at the Middle East Institute in Washington, said the rule was “quite extraordinary,” adding that it could undermine American interests and signal a hasty change in direction that exacerbates jitters among allies about their relationships with the new administration.

....Some expressed dismay that Mr. Trump, whose wife, Melania, has chosen to stay in New York to avoid moving the couple’s 10-year-old son, Barron, to a new school midyear, would not ensure that such allowances were made for American ambassadors.

​

They "shouldn't be surprised"? If it breaks with decades of precedent, they of course they would be surprised. No ill will? Really?

Sob story article. A load of crap. Notice the term "case by case"....Your thread ignores that while implying the "extensions" are granted to ALL personnel.
Not true.
These people are just pissed off because their paychecks will end upon the end of their boss' term. And rightly so. Why should the US Taxpayer have to pay TWO people for one job?
And this idea that children cannot enter a school district during a term is bullshit. It happens all the time. children cannot be denied BY LAW enrollment to the public school in which they are assigned by residence.
This is another example of "this is how its always been done. How dare you change it"...
BTW, our allies and other nations are most likely ecstatic that all vestiges of Obama are going to disappear forthwith.
These are wealthy people who do not spend any of their own earnings. They have the financial means to do just about anything they wish. They are also intelligent resourceful people. They will improvise overcome and adapt.

My OP highlighted in bold colored font the bit about "case by case".

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Emptying all these embassies at once it a great means of destabilization.

Is he going to have ambassadors ready to move in immediately?

No. He isn't.

That is a very big problem.

Think of the Mideast, Africa, South America and 3rd world Asia. Lots of problem areas. His million-dollar donors won't want to work there.

Obama did the exact same thing in 2009

 

[tyroneweaver]

This article was posted in another thread. It deserves it's own thread. What an incredibly petty, callous and vindictive thing to do - upending people's lives just because you can? Seriously?

In Break With Precedent, Obama Envoys Are Denied Extensions Past Inauguration Day

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald J. Trump’s transition staff has issued a blanket edict requiring politically appointed ambassadors to leave their overseas posts by Inauguration Day, according to several American diplomats familiar with the plan, breaking with decades of precedent by declining to provide even the briefest of grace periods.

The mandate — issued “without exceptions,” according to a terse State Department cable sent on Dec. 23, diplomats who saw it said — threatens to leave the United States without Senate-confirmed envoys for months in critical nations like Germany, Canada and Britain. In the past, administrations of both parties have often granted extensions on a case-by-case basis to allow a handful of ambassadors, particularly those with school-age children, to remain in place for weeks or months.

...A senior Trump transition official said there was no ill will in the move, describing it as a simple matter of ensuring that Mr. Obama’s overseas appointees leave the government on schedule, just as thousands of political aides at the White House and in federal agencies must do. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity about internal deliberations, said the ambassadors should not be surprised about being held to a hard end date.

The directive has nonetheless upended the personal lives of many ambassadors, who are scrambling to secure living arrangements and acquire visas allowing them to remain in their countries so their children can remain in school, the diplomats said. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly on the matter.

W. Robert Pearson, a former ambassador to Turkey and a scholar at the Middle East Institute in Washington, said the rule was “quite extraordinary,” adding that it could undermine American interests and signal a hasty change in direction that exacerbates jitters among allies about their relationships with the new administration.

....Some expressed dismay that Mr. Trump, whose wife, Melania, has chosen to stay in New York to avoid moving the couple’s 10-year-old son, Barron, to a new school midyear, would not ensure that such allowances were made for American ambassadors.

​

They "shouldn't be surprised"? If it breaks with decades of precedent, they of course they would be surprised. No ill will? Really?

Truly despicable. I feel like Adolf Hitler is coming to power. Scary...

Ya you better hump it to Austria

 

[Moonglow]

Well you've certainly found a diamond in the rough.
This is a game breaker.

It does affect families...But what does that matter if a kid has to transfer during the school year to another nation, right?

Sorta like the ACA

That was a pain in the ass also...

How about Travelgate?

I was never a part of that, really..

 

[defcon4]

This blog explains it best...and reasonably explores it. What makes the Trump team's "pink slipping" so much more callous is the up front "no exceptions" statement.

Foreign Service Tradition: Political Ambassadors Have To Be Out By January 20

How about this one: Going into work and there is a sign on the gate "We are permanently closed. Pick up your paycheck at this and this location."
It happened.

 

[Coyote]

Were the leftards crying when Obama did same?

The rightards can't seem to comprehend that the issue is not that they are pinked, but that he is refusing all grace periods and making no exceptions - a departure from normal precedents.

Now, if you can show us that Obama did that as well, I'd be interested in seeing your evidence.

The article also quotes Ambassador Marc Grossman who cites former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell who reportedly offered particularly wide latitude to ambassadors facing family issues. “This was something that was important to Secretary Powell because of his own experience living and serving all over the world, so when people asked him, ‘Could I stay another couple of weeks, couple of months; my kids are finishing school,’ he was very accommodating,” Mr. Grossman said, adding that his flexibility was an “exception” to the general practice.

Secretary Powell was an “exception” to the general practice of the wholesale departure of political appointees at the beginning of every administration.


https://www.google.com/amp/s/diplop...-january-20/amp/?client=ms-android-att-aio-us

Good point.

 

[depotoo]

Are you aware Obama did the same? Did you gripe then? See my other posts in this thread for link

Obama did the same-
44 - Obama Gives Political Ambassadors Their Pink Slips

This article was posted in another thread. It deserves it's own thread. What an incredibly petty, callous and vindictive thing to do - upending people's lives just because you can? Seriously?

In Break With Precedent, Obama Envoys Are Denied Extensions Past Inauguration Day

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald J. Trump’s transition staff has issued a blanket edict requiring politically appointed ambassadors to leave their overseas posts by Inauguration Day, according to several American diplomats familiar with the plan, breaking with decades of precedent by declining to provide even the briefest of grace periods.

The mandate — issued “without exceptions,” according to a terse State Department cable sent on Dec. 23, diplomats who saw it said — threatens to leave the United States without Senate-confirmed envoys for months in critical nations like Germany, Canada and Britain. In the past, administrations of both parties have often granted extensions on a case-by-case basis to allow a handful of ambassadors, particularly those with school-age children, to remain in place for weeks or months.

...A senior Trump transition official said there was no ill will in the move, describing it as a simple matter of ensuring that Mr. Obama’s overseas appointees leave the government on schedule, just as thousands of political aides at the White House and in federal agencies must do. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity about internal deliberations, said the ambassadors should not be surprised about being held to a hard end date.

The directive has nonetheless upended the personal lives of many ambassadors, who are scrambling to secure living arrangements and acquire visas allowing them to remain in their countries so their children can remain in school, the diplomats said. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly on the matter.

W. Robert Pearson, a former ambassador to Turkey and a scholar at the Middle East Institute in Washington, said the rule was “quite extraordinary,” adding that it could undermine American interests and signal a hasty change in direction that exacerbates jitters among allies about their relationships with the new administration.

....Some expressed dismay that Mr. Trump, whose wife, Melania, has chosen to stay in New York to avoid moving the couple’s 10-year-old son, Barron, to a new school midyear, would not ensure that such allowances were made for American ambassadors.

​

They "shouldn't be surprised"? If it breaks with decades of precedent, they of course they would be surprised. No ill will? Really?

Opps!

No. Not an oops.

Every new administration does that - EXCEPT - they make exceptions, and grant grace periods to allow families with children in school to complete the terms. That is the issue.

So we should keep someone in that country in a diplomatic post for the children?

Do you even fathom how stupid that sounds?

Did the military allow my kids to stay in school or did I have to move mid-year?

My oldest daughter attended about 7 different school before she hit middle school and I left the military.

I went to 17 different schools before I graduated from high school due to dad being transferred or sent to VietNam so we moved in with grandparents... 17!

I wouldn't wish that on any other kid, evah!!!

No, the most important reason they should be allowed to stay, is not to leave their positions without anyone to serve us...staying until there is a replacement is not something out of the ordinary, it is usually protocol, or at least a standard...and also a courtesy, that makes sense on many levels.....

 

[TheGreatGatsby]

I guess shedding tears for them is unwarranted. They are quite well off as I read the article from the past.

"President Obama has rewarded at least 19 campaign contributors and political allies with ambassadorships this year, according to an analysis by The Hill."
Obama hands out plum ambassador posts to big campaign donors

 

[Coyote]

This blog explains it best...and reasonably explores it. What makes the Trump team's "pink slipping" so much more callous is the up front "no exceptions" statement.

Foreign Service Tradition: Political Ambassadors Have To Be Out By January 20

How about this one: Going into work and there is a sign on the gate "We are permanently closed. Pick up your paycheck at this and this location."
It happened.

Yes. It HAS happened. Are you saying that is right?

 

[JimBowie1958]

Lefties should grow up and stop whining.

No, no, let them whine all the more!

Most Americans despise their bullshit, so we should encourage them to just ramp it up, not diminish it, lol.

 

[Missouri_Mike]

They serve at the will of the President. Only a complete idiot would think they had any job security in a position like that.

 

[thereisnospoon]

Emptying all these embassies at once it a great means of destabilization.

Is he going to have ambassadors ready to move in immediately?

No. He isn't.

That is a very big problem.

Think of the Mideast, Africa, South America and 3rd world Asia. Lots of problem areas. His million-dollar donors won't want to work there.

Oh please. All of these places are no more than a one day's travel. On inauguration day, one walks out, the new person walks in,. Smooth transition.

 

[Tilly]

I'm sure they'll be just fine:

No, Trump’s Dismissal of Obama’s Ambassadors Is Not an Unprecedented Crisis

....That’s still how it works. The people asked to vacate their posts by the Trump Administration are big Obama donors and political allies. In fact, career diplomats complained about how crass and obvious the “selling of public office” had become by Obama’s second term, as one former ambassador put it to the UK Guardian in 2013.

The Guardian ran the numbers and found the average amount of political cash raised by recent or imminent appointees “soaring to $1.8 million per post.” Some of them were far above that average, such as Obama’s choice for representative to the Court of St. James’s, Matthew Barzun, who personally donated $2.3 million to Obama’s re-election campaign and helped raise $700 million more. That wasn’t public knowledge, by the way; it was revealed when someone leaked Democrat Party records to the media.

Those notorious Democratic National Committee documents released by WikiLeaks had even more information on these politically appointed diplomats. “Essentially, Obama was auctioning off foreign ambassador positions and other office positions while Hillary Clinton served as Secretary of State,” charged the Observer last September.

The Center for Public Integrity counted 31 Obama campaign “bundlers” — good for at least $500,000 in donations — named as ambassadors, mostly to Western Europe and other “highly developed and stable countries such as Canada and New Zealand.”

“Another 39 of Obama’s second-term ambassador nominees are political appointees who either gave his campaign money or are known political allies. They, too, largely enjoyed postings to wealthy and peaceful nations — Ireland, Denmark and Australia, for example — or high-profile countries such as China and India,” the Center added.....

No, Trump’s Dismissal of Obama’s Ambassadors Is Not an Unprecedented Crisis - Breitbart

 

[Tresha91203]

Were the leftards crying when Obama did same?

The rightards can't seem to comprehend that the issue is not that they are pinked, but that he is refusing all grace periods and making no exceptions - a departure from normal precedents.

Now, if you can show us that Obama did that as well, I'd be interested in seeing your evidence.

44 - Obama Gives Political Ambassadors Their Pink Slips

Political ambassadors sometimes are permitted to stay on briefly during a new administration, but the sweeping nature of the directive suggests that Obama has little interest in retaining any of Bush's ambassadorial appointees.

Most ambassadors, of course, are foreign service officers, but often the posts involving the most important bilateral relations (such as with Great Britain, Japan and India) or desirable locales (such as the Bahamas) are given to close friends and well-heeled contributors of the president.

 

[JimBowie1958]

Truly despicable. I feel like Adolf Hitler is coming to power. Scary...

No, that is not Adolf Hitler, that is your dog peeing down your leg.

 

[Coyote]

Ok everyone. Point taken. Maybe NYT took this out of proportion.

 

[JimBowie1958]

Ok everyone. Point taken. Maybe NYT took this out of proportion.

Maybe.

Just maybe.

 

[TheGreatGatsby]

This Is How Much It 'Costs' To Get An Ambassadorship: Guccifer 2.0 Leaks DNC 'Pay-To-Play' Donor List | Zero Hedge

 

[thereisnospoon]

This article was posted in another thread. It deserves it's own thread. What an incredibly petty, callous and vindictive thing to do - upending people's lives just because you can? Seriously?

In Break With Precedent, Obama Envoys Are Denied Extensions Past Inauguration Day

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald J. Trump’s transition staff has issued a blanket edict requiring politically appointed ambassadors to leave their overseas posts by Inauguration Day, according to several American diplomats familiar with the plan, breaking with decades of precedent by declining to provide even the briefest of grace periods.

The mandate — issued “without exceptions,” according to a terse State Department cable sent on Dec. 23, diplomats who saw it said — threatens to leave the United States without Senate-confirmed envoys for months in critical nations like Germany, Canada and Britain. In the past, administrations of both parties have often granted extensions on a case-by-case basis to allow a handful of ambassadors, particularly those with school-age children, to remain in place for weeks or months.

...A senior Trump transition official said there was no ill will in the move, describing it as a simple matter of ensuring that Mr. Obama’s overseas appointees leave the government on schedule, just as thousands of political aides at the White House and in federal agencies must do. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity about internal deliberations, said the ambassadors should not be surprised about being held to a hard end date.

The directive has nonetheless upended the personal lives of many ambassadors, who are scrambling to secure living arrangements and acquire visas allowing them to remain in their countries so their children can remain in school, the diplomats said. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly on the matter.

W. Robert Pearson, a former ambassador to Turkey and a scholar at the Middle East Institute in Washington, said the rule was “quite extraordinary,” adding that it could undermine American interests and signal a hasty change in direction that exacerbates jitters among allies about their relationships with the new administration.

....Some expressed dismay that Mr. Trump, whose wife, Melania, has chosen to stay in New York to avoid moving the couple’s 10-year-old son, Barron, to a new school midyear, would not ensure that such allowances were made for American ambassadors.

​

They "shouldn't be surprised"? If it breaks with decades of precedent, they of course they would be surprised. No ill will? Really?

It leaves the US without diplomats in places like Germany, the UK, Australia where they are needed. It will cause communication problems between countries. Trump simply doesn't understand how this all works, does he realize an ambassador needs to be approved by Congress?

The State Dept envoys do this. There is no great urgency to have a real time figurehead. They assume their posts and immediately their staff begins setting the Ambassador's appointments to meet with the host nation's executive personnel. No big deal

 

[defcon4]

This blog explains it best...and reasonably explores it. What makes the Trump team's "pink slipping" so much more callous is the up front "no exceptions" statement.

Foreign Service Tradition: Political Ambassadors Have To Be Out By January 20

How about this one: Going into work and there is a sign on the gate "We are permanently closed. Pick up your paycheck at this and this location."
It happened.

Yes. It HAS happened. Are you saying that is right?

No, I am not saying it is right. I am saying that it is what it is and it happens all the time to working people who desperately need the measly paycheck to survive. I don't hear outrage then. That's my point.