IOW, as you see it, the "ship of state" should be a ponderous and very costly cargo steamer captained by despots with a conscripted crew - a monster boat of the Marx & Hegel Red Star Line that depends entirely on a ballast of bureaucrats and petty tyrants to stay afloat. This leviathan, of course, bears no resemblance to the trim, sleek, cost efficient, and speedy yacht designed and built by Madison & Co, captained and crewed by free American citizens.

FYI: Throughout our history, all policy, foreign and domestic, stems from the White House and depends on the President's ideology. Congress is one of three equal branches of our American government, it has no power to "reign" over either of the other two. The fundamental concept is separation of powers.

Those of us who have studied the history of our American government know that, over many decades, the State Department evolved into a self-serving entity with an agenda of its own. State has often butted heads with the president in setting its own foreign policies. Over time, a culture of deeply embedded bureaucrats working in foreign environments were heavily influenced by the traditions and the demands of the country in which they worked. A kind of political Stockholm Syndrome developed in which the foreign officers experienced a psychological alliance with the host country.

There is, however, a stunning contrast between the agreeable diplomatic relations of State Department officers who have worked for years in nations friendly or allied with the United States and the departure from American interests by those who work in countries that are unfriendly, even hostile, to the US.

Here’s How Much Red Tape Trump Has Cut.

It is way past time for a major dump of bureaucratic ballast, fish bait, chum for the sharks, food for the Orcas.

And how many of these career diplomats would you say are likely holdovers from the stacked decks of the Kerry/Hillary State Departments?

A presidential administration has every right, given a POTUS' role in foreign diplomacy, to "clean house" and bring in people who will better represent their foreign policy goals.

Leave it to MSN to glean and cherry pick for yet another anti-Trump article.

For the umpteenth time, President Trump is a businessman, not a career politician.

Career politicians rarely get anything useful done, whereas businessmen do.

In younger years I worked in the N.Y. business world, corporate positions both on Wall Street and in retail, and I learned that one major reason N.Y. is the business/financial capital of the planet is that in order to achieve their goals, savvy corporate leaders weed out internal "resistance" and staff, or in the case of takeovers or mergers re-staff, their firms with Team Players.

The president has enough problems already with perpetual baseless attacks, "investigations" and across the board obstruction by the Democrats that he doesn't need the added headaches of disloyal diplomats to sabotage his foreign policy efforts as well.

And how many of these career diplomats would you say are likely holdovers from the stacked decks of the Kerry/Hillary State Departments?

A presidential administration has every right, given a POTUS' role in foreign diplomacy, to "clean house" and bring in people who will better represent their foreign policy goals.

Leave it to MSN to glean and cherry pick for yet another anti-Trump article.

For the umpteenth time, President Trump is a businessman, not a career politician.

Career politicians rarely get anything useful done, whereas businessmen do.

In younger years I worked in the N.Y. business world, corporate positions both on Wall Street and in retail, and I learned that one major reason N.Y. is the business/financial capital of the planet is that in order to achieve their goals, savvy corporate leaders weed out internal "resistance" and staff, or in the case of takeovers or mergers re-staff, their firms with Team Players.

The president has enough problems already with perpetual baseless attacks, "investigations" and across the board obstruction by the Democrats that he doesn't need the added headaches of disloyal diplomats to sabotage his foreign policy efforts as well.

One of the things that is coming out as insiders testify, is that there were many formal complaints to the DOJ about various violations coming from a hidden agenda surrounding Giuliani and Trump people that weren't working through official channels.

The DOJ is the other branch besides congress that has a role in oversight on the executive branch. It is not the job of the DOJ and attorney general to run interference and obstruct or block requests for investigations into abuse by the president. In fact it is the AG's responsibility to effectively look at and explore formal complaints about the president or white house.

It goes further, as a coequal branch with the executive and legislative branches, when the house takes on oversight of the president for violations, it is the responsibility of the DOJ and AG to perform as an unbiased partner with congress in investigations they are involved in. When the house specifies a list of documents they need from the DOJ that were from DOJ investigations, they should be given without bias, in fact it should be with a cooperative spirit as they are both on the same side of justice and oversight.

In fact we have an attorney general in Barr who has made no attempt to hide the fact that he views the DOJ and his job as to run interference and obstruction for the president. He has published opinions that state that it is his belief that the president can't be indicted so as far as he's concerned he can't be investigated either...proved by refusing to release documents pertaining to Mueller's report... and now refusing to cooperate with evidence in ongoing investigations such as the whistleblower report which, he tried to suppress and obstruct.

One of the things that is coming out as insiders testify, is that there were many formal complaints to the DOJ about various violations coming from a hidden agenda surrounding Giuliani and Trump people that weren't working through official channels.

The DOJ is the other branch besides congress that has a role in oversight on the executive branch. It is not the job of the DOJ and attorney general to run interference and obstruct or block requests for investigations into abuse by the president. In fact it is the AG's responsibility to effectively look at and explore formal complaints about the president or white house.

It goes further, as a coequal branch with the executive and legislative branches, when the house takes on oversight of the president for violations, it is the responsibility of the DOJ and AG to perform as an unbiased partner with congress in investigations they are involved in. When the house specifies a list of documents they need from the DOJ that were from DOJ investigations, they should be given without bias, in fact it should be with a cooperative spirit as they are both on the same side of justice and oversight.

In fact we have an attorney general in Barr who has made no attempt to hide the fact that he views the DOJ and his job as to run interference and obstruction for the president. He has published opinions that state that it is his belief that the president can't be indicted so as far as he's concerned he can't be investigated either...proved by refusing to release documents pertaining to Mueller's report... and now refusing to cooperate with evidence in ongoing investigations such as the whistleblower report which, he tried to suppress and obstruct.

Actually, you really don't know what is actually coming out since these are secret hearings and the only information coming out is cherry picked, twisted with an anti-Trump bias and then leaked. And if what you are claiming is actually true, then open hearings with open testimony would reveals all that and we ALL should hear about that bit of "truth," don't you think??

I don't care what anyone says, if we are getting leaked information selected by the very guys who are all self-righteous about rule of law and the Constitution, the I am not buying one iota of it and I'd say that in a later trial, if there is one, anything leaked should not be admissible as evidence in a monopoly game, much less a trial of a president. The way this is being handled is such an obvious travesty that it, in essence, spits on our beliefs/constitutional rights/god given freedoms.

No offense slatten but there is no defense for the democrats on this point. And taking into account their behaviors over the past three years, I am hoping so obvious as to be the death blow to the party, I hope they crash and burn to utter oblivion of political power/position. When this is done I hope they can't get a job and a night janitor in a court house/gov building.

Just say'in.

One of the things that is coming out as insiders testify, is that there were many formal complaints to the DOJ about various violations coming from a hidden agenda surrounding Giuliani and Trump people that weren't working through official channels.

The DOJ is the other branch besides congress that has a role in oversight on the executive branch. It is not the job of the DOJ and attorney general to run interference and obstruct or block requests for investigations into abuse by the president. In fact it is the AG's responsibility to effectively look at and explore formal complaints about the president or white house.

It goes further, as a coequal branch with the executive and legislative branches, when the house takes on oversight of the president for violations, it is the responsibility of the DOJ and AG to perform as an unbiased partner with congress in investigations they are involved in. When the house specifies a list of documents they need from the DOJ that were from DOJ investigations, they should be given without bias, in fact it should be with a cooperative spirit as they are both on the same side of justice and oversight.

In fact we have an attorney general in Barr who has made no attempt to hide the fact that he views the DOJ and his job as to run interference and obstruction for the president. He has published opinions that state that it is his belief that the president can't be indicted so as far as he's concerned he can't be investigated either...proved by refusing to release documents pertaining to Mueller's report... and now refusing to cooperate with evidence in ongoing investigations such as the whistleblower report which, he tried to suppress and obstruct.