Meanwhile, back at the White House...

[MineralMan]

The State Department still has no Under-Secretaries, and the Justice Department has no U.S. Attorneys. Basically, both departments are running without day-to-day leadership, which means that they're just spinning their wheels. Trump has appointed nobody to positions that need consent by the Senate.

What does that mean? Well, it means that our international diplomacy is completely without direction and there's nobody to bring any federal suits for anything. Essentially, our two most important Executive Branch Departments are idle and useless.

And that's just the beginning. Trump has either refused, or is unable, to appoint people to crucial leadership positions in departments and agencies under his administration. Everything is pretty much in Neutral, and going nowhere fast.

It appears that the plan to gut the power of government is well underway. Without that second-level leadership, literally nothing will happen at any department or agency. It can't. The Attorney General and Secretary of State don't play that big a role in the normal operations of their respective departments. They're policy wonks, not actual directors of activities.

This is alarming, for those who don't actually know how our enormous government bureaucracy functions. Will things change soon? It sure doesn't look like it. Donald Trump seems happy signing his useless Executive Orders and twittering away about things.

There's no need to wait for a government shutdown. It's already effectively shut down.

[shraby]

1. It's going to get mighty interesting if we have a full blown emergency in the country.

A tornadic outbreak, a hurricane, major flooding, gigantic forest fires where the feds need to step in with extra manpower and financial help.

[MineralMan]

2. Trump don't care about any of that...

Not his problem. He's good. He'll be at Mar Yer Logo, if you want to talk to him.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. Look on the bright side:

When citizens sue the government for some of the crap Trump has done, there will be no US attorneys to defend that crap.

[MineralMan]

4. Well, you have a point, there.

Sounds like filing federal lawsuits should be a priority, then. So far, we've killed a couple of racist, religion-based immigration EOs. Maybe there is more than can be done. Hmm....

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

6. The ACLU and SPLC and other civil rights organizations

will have plenty to do. The US attorneys that were fired have not been replaced, which means the work will be done by assistant attorneys in their respective offices. At some point (if it hasn't started to happen already), at least some of those attorneys might decide they don't want to defend Trump's laws, and will resign to take the drag off their consciences and make more money - experience in a US Attorney's office is valuable; it can lead to a very good job in the private sector.

So: there'll be more to do with fewer people to do it, and federal judges are not very tolerant of delays or shoddy work. Deadlines will be missed; briefs will be sloppy; trials will be poorly prepared. And the very good lawyers who work for the ACLU and the SPLC will eat their lunch.

[dixiegrrrrl]

16. That made me happy. n/t

[gratuitous]

11. Maybe AG Sessions will start making court appearances

I can think of at least one federal judge who wouldn't mind hosting the AG in person for a hearing.

[Warpy]

5. I keep warning people that government will continue to slow and eventually

cease to function for most of us because he simply doesn't understand that positions must be staffed and that he can't be the sole director of government. He sees these positions as being middle management positions and those people not only cost corporations money, they can be a threat to his grip on his own power by taking decision making away from him.

People who think they hate government are going to find out they hate a lack of government even more.

Because he is incapable of managing his own job and delegating work to appropriate people (instead of appointing people according to Central Casting standards), he will be removed at some point. He has to be. However, it will likely take the full 2 years the GOP want him in there and the his time will be one of increasing misery.

[MineralMan]

13. That's a real possibility, I agree.

[Mr. Ected]

7. Steve Bannon is hiding in plain sight, overseeing his "Deconstruction of the Administrative State"

What you write about isn't a bug, it's a feature, of this neofascist counter-government loosely managed by Donald J Trump.

[struggle4progress]

8. i had thunk him spozed take care the laws be executed faithful-like

and if him ain't gonna then some buddy oughta start peachin him

[maxsolomon]

10. ME LYK POST

YU GUD RITE

[Cryptoad]

9. Not sure,,,,

Trump admin stuck in neutral is a bad thing,,,,,,,,

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

12. I just read an editorial that said we are experiencing

a decapitation of the executive branch. We have no president and the rest of the government is rolling along without him.

Tom Ricks (military writer and national security specialist at the New America Foundation...), author of the forthcoming history “Churchill & Orwell,” argues that Trump’s tendency to speak nonsense isn’t necessarily a bad thing when it comes to national security. Mattis and his generals are running foreign policy while the president, in over his head, hangs out in the White House watching TV and getting a nudge from the first lady when it’s time to put his hand over his heart for the national anthem at the Easter Egg Roll.

“We’re now experiencing what a decapitation strike would be against the U.S. government,” he said. “You can have nobody, effectively, at the White House and still run the country. It’s a post-nuclear environment.” Trump may have no clue, but his national security team is “solid,” Ricks argues. “The less the White House knows these days, the better.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/where-is-trumps-armada-apparently-wherever-fox-news-says-it-is/2017/04/21/c2350126-2695-11e7-a1b3-faff0034e2de_story.html?utm_term=.242c551fc510

[MineralMan]

14. Interesting.

[Cryptoad]

15. Just think of the ShitHOle

we would be in if they had enough political sense to enact the bull they want !