American Federation Of Government Employees National Council: Fill & Download for Free

There are three ways that the President of the United States leaves office:A new president is elected;The existing President is impeached;The existing President dies.Even in middle school, it should have been obvious that the nation went through a vastly painful and divisive impeachment effort, which failed.As we know now, IF the Congress had waited for the court ruling on the legitimacy of their efforts to subpoena the testimonies of the members of his administration, they would have lost and they would have had only one charge against the President — and that one, Abuse of Power, was elegantly argued against by the President’s council.Alan Dershowitz made the point that the Constitution gives the President the responsibility to uphold the laws of the United States which inarguably would include the law against using a public office for private gain.Here it is, in writing:“§ 2635.702 Use of public office for private gain.An employee shall not use his public office for his own private gain, for the endorsement of any product, service or enterprise, or for the private gain of friends, relatives, or persons with whom the employee is affiliated in a nongovernmental capacity, including nonprofit organizations of which the employee is an officer or member, and persons with whom the employee has or seeks employment or business relations. The specific prohibitions set forth in paragraphs (a) through (d) of this section apply this general standard, but are not intended to be exclusive or to limit the application of this section.(a) Inducement or coercion of benefits. An employee shall not use or permit the use of his Government position or title or any authority associated with his public office in a manner that is intended to coerce or induce another person, including a subordinate, to provide any benefit, financial or otherwise, to himself or to friends, relatives, or persons with whom the employee is affiliated in a nongovernmental capacity.”§ 2635.702 Use of public office for private gain., Subpart G — Misuse of Position, Part 2635 - STANDARDS OF ETHICAL CONDUCT FOR EMPLOYEES OF THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH, SUBCHAPTER B — GOVERNMENT ETHICS, CHAPTER XVI — OFFICE OF GOVERNMENT ETHICS, Title 5 - Administrative Personnel, Code of Federal RegulationsIt is also clearly acceptable to ask foreign governments — specifically, in this case, Ukraine — for assistance in apprehending people who are suspected of committing crimes while in foreign countries because in 1999, the treaty between the United States and Ukraine agreeing on mutual legal assistance on criminal affairs was signed, agreeing to exactly that..Text - Treaty Document 106-16 - Treaty with Ukraine on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal MattersSo what President Trump did, asking Ukraine for information pertaining to Biden’s activities, was perfectly legal.The House council contended that, since Trump’s purpose was to “gain dirt on an opponent” it had become an “Abuse of Power”However, as Dershowitz’s argument explained, an action that is legal cannot be declared to be illegal if it was done from an impure motive. If the law were to assume otherwise, judges would be forced to make decisions about the motive of a person’s actions, which is contrary to every legal precedent in both American law and English Common Law.Obviously, no human being can truly know what another person is thinking.Middle School should be fully able to understand Trump was acquitted of the impeachment charges and therefore why Trump is still the President.

See http://judiciary.house.gov/issues/Rouge%20Websites/SOPA%20Supporters.pdf. New list just released yesterday60 Plus AssociationABCAlliance for Safe Online Pharmacies (ASOP)American Federation of Musicians (AFM)American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA)American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP)Americans for Tax ReformArtists and Allied Crafts of the United StatesAssociation of American Publishers (AAP)Association of State Criminal Investigative AgenciesAssociation of Talent Agents (ATA)Baker & Hostetler LLPBeachbody, LLCBMIBMG ChrysalisBuilding and Construction Trades DepartmentCapitol Records NashvilleCBSCengage LearningChristian Music Trade AssociationChurch Music Publishers’ AssociationCoalition Against Online Video Piracy (CAOVP)Comcast/NBCUniversalConcerned Women for America (CWA)Congressional Fire Services InstituteCopyhypeCopyright AllianceCoty, Inc.Council of Better Business Bureaus (CBBB)Council of State GovernmentsCountry Music AssociationCountry Music TelevisionCovington & Burling LLPCowan, DeBaets, Abrahams & Sheppard LLPCowan, Liebowitz & Latman, P.C.Creative AmericaDavis Wright Tremaine LLPDeluxe2Directors Guild of America (DGA)Disney Publishing Worldwide, Inc.ElsevierEMI Christian Music GroupEMI Music PublishingESPNEstée Lauder CompaniesFraternal Order of Police (FOP)Go DaddyGospel Music AssociationGraphic Artists GuildHachette Book GroupHarperCollins Publishers Worldwide, Inc.HyperionIndependent Film & Television Alliance (IFTA)International Alliance of Theatrical and Stage Employees (IATSE)International AntiCounterfeiting Coalition (IACC)International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW)International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT)International Trademark Association (INTA)International Union of Police AssociationsIrell & Manella LLPJenner & Block LLPKelley Drye & Warren LLPKendall Brill & Klieger LLPKinsella Weitzman Iser Kump & Aldisert LLPL’OrealLathrop & Gage LLPLoeb & Loeb LLPLost Highway RecordsMacmillanMajor County SheriffsMajor League BaseballMajority City ChiefsMarvel Entertainment, LLCMasterCard WorldwideMCA RecordsMcGraw-Hill EducationMercury NashvilleMinor League Baseball (MiLB)Minority Media & Telecom Council (MMTC)Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp LLPMorrison & Foerster LLPMotion Picture Association of America (MPAA)Moving Picture Technicians3MPA – The Association of Magazine MediaNational Association of Manufacturers (NAM)National Association of Prosecutor CoordinatorsNational Association of State Chief Information OfficersNational Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA)National Center for Victims of CrimeNational Crime Justice AssociationNational District Attorneys AssociationNational Domestic Preparedness CoalitionNational Football LeagueNational Governors Association, Economic Development and Commerce CommitteeNational League of CitiesNational Narcotics Offers’ Associations’ CoalitionNational Sheriffs’ Association (NSA)National Songwriters AssociationNational Troopers CoalitionNews CorporationPatterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLPPearson EducationPenguin Group (USA), Inc.Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA)Phillips Nizer, LLPPfizer, Inc.Proskauer Rose LLPProvident Music GroupRandom HouseRaulet Property PartnersRepublic NashvilleRevlonRobins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi LLPScholastic, Inc.Screen Actors Guild (SAG)Shearman & Sterling LLPShowdog Universal MusicSimpson Thacher & Bartlett LLPSkadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLPSony/ATV Music PublishingSony Music EntertainmentSony Music NashvilleState International Development Organization (SIDO)The National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO)The Perseus Books GroupsThe United States Conference of MayorsTiffany & Co.Time Warner4Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)UMG Publishing Group NashvilleUnited States Chamber of CommerceUnited States Tennis AssociationUniversal MusicUniversal Music Publishing GroupViacomVisa, Inc.W.W. Norton & CompanyWarner Music GroupWarner Music NashvilleWhite & Case LLPWolters Kluewer HealthWord Entertainment

Biden and this team are — almost literally — the Pros from Dover¹. They know exactly what they’re doing, they’ve been planning things for over a year, and sure, Trump’s last minute moves to install unqualified Trump bootlickers is junior-league stuff. Every Administration does their share of burrowing — bringing in highly partisan political appointees to traditionally apolitical positions in the Government.The primary feature of Trump’s people is not simply that they’re hyperpartisans, but that they’re loud-mouthed Trumpublicans with no talent for their positions, no business being there. This fact can’t help but be noticed by the rank-and-file government workers they work alongside of, supervise, etc. Being fired for the inability to do one’s job isn’t political, it’s firing-for-cause.And heads have already rolled. Twenty-three minutes after assuming the Presidency, Joe Biden demanded the resignation of Peter Robb, the notoriously anti-union general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board appointed by Donald Trump. Robb refused to resign, so Biden fired him. Alice Stock, another anti-union Trump appointee, then assumed the role of acting general counsel—and Biden demanded her resignation the next day. Stock also refused to resign, so Biden fired her, too. Appointees to the NLRB are usually left in place until their term expires, but Robb had been openly violating Federal Law, which requires the NLRB to promote collective bargaining as the economic policy of the United States.An hour or so later, Biden removed the Trump appointed directors of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks, as well as Michael Pack, the acting director of their parent organization, the US Agency for Global Media. Pack had been acting to turn these into Trump propaganda outfits, going against many decades of editorial independence and journalistic integrity. Based on multiple whistleblower complaints, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel found a “substantial likelihood” that Pack had violated federal law and engaged in “gross mismanagement.” Yeah, that’s pretty much how Trump appointees roll.Another Inauguration Day firing was Kathleen Kraninger, who was confirmed as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in 2018. Kraninger, who had no previous experience in consumer protection, immediately tried to undermine the agency’s role as a watchdog for the financial sector. She scrapped a landmark rule that restricted predatory payday lending, pressuring staff to downplay the resulting harm to consumers. And she refused to enforce a federal law that protected military personnel against a broad range of predatory lending. Her decision yanked federal support from military families who were defrauded by lenders. In the midst of the pandemic, Kraninger also approved a rule that allows debt collectors to harass Americans with limitless texts and emails demanding repayment. Trump actually paved the way to her dismissal! The Dodd-Frank Act gave the CFPB’s director significant independence by barring the president from firing her over political disagreements. However, in 2020, the Supreme Court found this protection unconstitutional.Trump had issued an Executive Order to eliminate Federal “Schedule F” protection from regular civil service workers, making it much easier for political managers to fire ordinarily, apolitical civil servants and replace them with political flunkies. President Biden is eliminating this and restoring those protections."It's a huge attack on the apolitical civil service," says Jacqueline Simon, the policy director at the American Federation of Government Employees union, said in response to Trump’s new policy. She says the order could mean these top positions would no longer be filled by people who have been hired through a competitive process. "If it's implemented broadly, it could create absolute chaos in the agencies. It could be an absolute fiasco," says Simon. "Everyone's seen what happens if this administration tries to politicize scientific work. We've seen it in CDC, and we've seen it in the weather service. We've seen it in EPA, we've seen it all across the agencies. Imagine every single agency undermined by political hacks."Biden does not intend to do any low-level scan of government for embedded Trump supporters. The Biden Administration does have the ability to set standards of professional behavior and performance. Removals for cause, sure, but not for politics. Too bad for you if your bad politics cause you poor job performance.However, that doesn’t mean that Biden’s appointees are going to be happy with any last-minute Trump cronies in their departments. For example, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin fired all members serving on 31 defense advisory boards effective Feb. 16, including the Defense Policy Board, the Defense Business Board, and the Defense Innovation Board. As well, Secretary Austin directed the immediate suspension of operations for 42 panels in total, while the Pentagon completes a “zero-based review" of the department's boards and commissions.I don’t know about you, but I’m actually rather happy that there are no longer Trump cronies in high positions within the Pentagon, regardless of just why Trump put them there.The highest bar for lesser Trump appointees still fully committed to trying to bring down the Biden Administration are the rules Biden’s establishing for competence and decorum. If you’re not able to do the job, don’t expect to stay. Trump didn’t give a flying felgercarb is anyone he hired could do some jobs, and intentionally chose unqualified people to sabotage parts of the government he didn’t like. These folks are not going to last under Biden. And in particular, Biden has said he will fire anyone he sees showing disrespect to fellow colleagues. I expect that to be a new policy throughout the Executive Branch.As well, Biden is already restoring agency independence and government oversight. Many of those Trump-installed flunkies can only survive in the environment that Trump created, where political interference rules the day and those responsible for oversight get fired for trying to enforce policies and the law. And that independence means that, unlike Trump, Biden is not going deep into agencies looking to root out Trump loyalists. He’s leaving it to the heads of agencies to restore their agencies to their former world-class status.But there certainly are positions in the government that have harder rules about their appointment, in an effort to actually eliminate too much political influence. Unfortunately, to an extent at least, both political parties have worked hard to figure work-arounds, and thus, they do sometimes get a completely unqualified political hack appointed to a position that’s supposed to be resistant to that sort of thing. Though some of that’s simply the case that most positions in government were previously just never considered as targets for those political hacks. Trump changed this — he wanted a Trump loyalist in any possible position, and didn’t consider anything else a necessary qualification.So we have stooges like Trump’s Postmaster General Louis DeJoy. He was tasked with screwing up the Postal Service to help Trump win the election by delaying mail-in votes. It didn’t swing the election Trump’s way, but have you sent a package via the USPS lately? On pure performance metrics for person in that job, he probably wouldn’t quality as a Postman, much less the Postmaster General. But Biden can’t get rid of him quite so easily, even based on cause.The Postmaster General is appointed by the USPS Board of Governors, a theoretically independent, bipartisan council set up to make decisions about the Postal Service. Each Governor is appointed for seven years… it used to be nine, but a bill passed under George W. Bush reduced the term to seven. A Governor can serve for an additional year if not immediately replaced.Anyway, under Obama, the Senate refused to approve any appointments to the Board — Moscow Mitch McConnell didn’t even allow a vote to be taken on any of the appointees. So when Trump took office, it was empty. He was able to fill it with enough cronies to ensure that he got what he wanted. The Republicans had been trying to destroy and/or privatize the Postal Service for decades, despite its mandate in the Constitution. DeJoy was a big donor to the Trump Campaign ($700,000 in the 2016 election, at least $1.2 million after the election), and became the first person ever nominated to Postmaster General who didn’t come up through the ranks…. a completely political appointment.They all serve at the “pleasure of the President” so he can technically fire any of them for cause. However, the Board is meant to be bipartisan: only a maximum of five members can belong to the same political party. The board alone is able to make changes within the Postal Service itself. Though if you’ve dealt with the mail delays these days, it ought to come as a surprise to no one that DeJoy, through intent or inability, has broken the Postal Service.Read MoreThe ‘Burrowing In’ of Political Appointees - American OversightFEDERAL AGENCIES: 'This is different': Dozens of Trump loyalists 'burrowing''A Huge Attack': Critics Decry Trump Order That Makes Firing Federal Workers EasierBiden tells appointees 'I will fire you on the spot' for showing disrespect to colleaguesHow the Postal Service Became Donald Trump's for the TakingFootnotes¹Dover, Delaware, is just over 50 miles from Joe Biden’s home in Greenville, about 45 miles from his place in Rehoboth Beach.