Two weeks before the 2020 general election, on October 21, 2020, Donald Trump issued an executive order (E.O. 13957) on “Creating Schedule F in the Excepted Service.”
It sounds boring. Actually, it would have fundamentally changed, in the best possible way, the entire functioning of the administrative bureaucracy that rules this country in a way that bypasses both the legislative and judicial process, and has ruined the checks and balances inherent in the US Constitution.
The administrative state for the better part of a century, and really dating back to the Pendleton Act of 1883, has designed policy, made policy, structured policy, implemented policy, and interpreted policy while operating outside the control of Congress, the president, and the judiciary.
The gradual rise of this 4th branch of government – which is very much the most powerful branch – has reduced the American political process to mere theater as compared with the real activity of government, which rests with the permanent bureaucracy.
Any new president can hire the heads of agencies and they can hire staff, which are known as political appointees. These 4,000 political appointees ostensibly rule 432 agencies (as listed by the Federal Register) as well as some 2.9 million employees (aside from the military and postal service) that effectively inhabit permanent jobs. This permanent state – sometimes called the deep state – knows the ropes and the processes of government far better than any temporary political appointee, thus reducing the appointed jobs to cosmetic positions for the press to hound while the real actions of government take place behind the scenes.
From 2020 and onward, the American people got to know this administrative state well. They ordered us to wear masks. They deployed their influence to close small businesses and churches. They limited how many people we could have in our homes. They festooned our businesses with plexiglass and told everyone to stay six-feet apart. They demanded two weeks of quarantine when crossing state borders. They decided which medical procedures were elective and non-elective. And they finally demanded compliance with vaccine mandates at the penalty of job loss.
None of this was ordered by legislation. It was all invented on the spot by the permanent staff of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. We had no idea they had such power. But they do. And that same power which allowed those egregious attacks on rights and liberties also belongs to the Food and Drug Administration, the Department of Labor, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Homeland Security, and all the rest.
Donald Trump came into office with the promise of draining the swamp, without understanding entirely what that meant. He gradually came to realize that he had no control over most of the affairs of government, not because he had no patience for the legislative process but because he had no ability to terminate the employment of most of the civilian bureaucracy. Nor could his political appointees control it. The media, he gradually came to realize, echoed the priorities and concerns of this administrative state due to long-established relationships that led to nonstop leaks that spread false information.
In May of 2018, he took his first steps to gain some modicum of control over this deep state. He issued three executive orders (E.O. 13837, E.O. 13836, and E.O.13839) that would have diminished their access to labor-union protection when being pressed on the terms of their employment. Those three orders were litigated by the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) and sixteen other federal labor unions.
The D.C. Circuit Court reversed Trump’s “Schedule F”
All three were struck down with a decision by a DC District Court. The presiding judge was Ketanji Brown Jackson, who was later rewarded for her decision with a nomination to the Supreme Court, which was affirmed by the US Senate. The prevailing and openly stated reason for her nomination was said to be mostly demographic: she would be the first black woman on the Court. The deeper reason was more likely traceable to her role in thwarting actions by Trump which had begun the process of upending the administrative state. Jackson’s judgment was later reversed but Trump’s actions were embroiled in a juridical tangle that rendered them moot.
Following the lockdowns of mid-March 2020, Trump became increasingly frustrated with the CDC and Anthony Fauci in particular. Trump was profoundly aware that he had no power to fire the man, despite his epicly terrible role in prolonging Covid lockdowns long after Trump wanted to open up to save the American economy and society.
Trump’s next step was radical and brilliant: the creation of a new category of federal employment. It was called Schedule F.
Employees of the federal government classified as Schedule F would have been subject to control by the elected president and other representatives. Who are they? They are those who met the following criteria:
Positions of a confidential, policy-determining, policy-making, or policy-advocating character not normally subject to change as a result of a Presidential transition shall be listed in Schedule F. In appointing an individual to a position in Schedule F, each agency shall follow the principle of veteran preference as far as administratively feasible.
Schedule F employees would be fired. “You’re fired” was the slogan that made Trump TV famous. With this order, he would be in a position to do the same to the federal bureaucracy. The order further demanded a thorough review throughout the government.
Each head of an executive agency (as defined in section 105 of title 5, United States Code, but excluding the Government Accountability Office) shall conduct, within 90 days of the date of this order, a preliminary review of agency positions covered by subchapter II of chapter 75 of title 5, United States Code, and shall conduct a complete review of such positions within 210 days of the date of this order.
The Washington Post in an editorial expressed absolute shock and alarm at the implications:
The directive from the White House, issued late Wednesday, sounds technical: creating a new “Schedule F” within the “excepted service” of the federal government for employees in policymaking roles, and directing agencies to determine who qualifies. Its implications, however, are profound and alarming. It gives those in power the authority to fire more or less at will as many as tens of thousands of workers currently in the competitive civil service, from managers to lawyers to economists to, yes, scientists. This week’s order is a major salvo in the president’s onslaught against the cadre of dedicated civil servants whom he calls the “deep state” — and who are really the greatest strength of the U.S. government.
Ninety days after October 21, 2020 would have been January 19, 2021, the day before the new president was to be inaugurated. The Washington Post commented ominously: “Mr. Trump will try to realize his sad vision in his second term, unless voters are wise enough to stop him.”
Biden was declared the winner due mostly to mail-in ballots.
On January 21, 2021, the day after inauguration, Biden reversed the order. It was one of his first actions as president. No wonder, because, as The Hill reported, this executive order would have been “the biggest change to federal workforce protections in a century, converting many federal workers to ‘at will’ employment.”
How many federal workers in agencies would have been newly classified at Schedule F? We do not know because only one completed the review before their jobs were saved by the election result. The one that did was the Congressional Budget Office. Its conclusion: fully 88% of employees would have been newly classified as Schedule F, thus allowing the president to terminate their employment.
This would have been a revolutionary change, a complete remake of Washington, DC, and all politics as usual.
Trump’s EO 13957 was a dagger aimed directly at the heart of the beast. It might have worked.
It would have gotten us closer to the restoration of a Constitutional system of government in which we have 3 – not 4 – branches of government that are wholly controlled by the people’s representatives. It would have gone a long way toward gutting the administrative state of its power and returning the affairs of state to the people’s control.
The action was stopped dead due to the election results.
Whatever one’s view of Trump, one has to admire the brilliance of this executive order. It shows that Trump had come to understand the problem and actually innovate a fundamental solution, or at least the beginnings of one. The “deep state” as we’ve come to know it would have been curbed, and we would have taken a step toward recreating the system that existed before the Pendleton Act of 1883.
Many efforts have been deployed through the years to regain constitutional control over the permanent bureaucracy. An example is the Hatch Act of 1939 which forbids employees of the government to work for political campaigns. That act turned out to be toothless – one does not need to work for a campaign in order to skew one’s labor in the direction of always granting the federal government more power and control – and largely made irrelevant in the succeeding decades.
Trump came to office promising to drain the swamp but it was very late in his term before he figured out the means at his disposal to do just that. His final effort took place merely two weeks before the election that was decided in favor of his opponent Biden, who quickly reversed this action just two days following the deadline of an ordered review that would have reclassified, and thus gained control over, a sizable portion of the administrative state.
With Executive Order 12003 (“Protecting the Federal Workforce”), Biden saved the deep state’s bacon, leaving the efforts finally to drain the swamp to another day and another president.
Still, Executive Order 13957 exists in the archives as a possible path forward to restore checks and balances in the US system of government. A new Congress can also take such steps at least symbolically.
Until something takes place to restore the people’s control of the administrative state, a sword of Damocles will continue to hang over the entire country and we will never be safe from another round of lockdowns and mandates.
Should a genuinely reformist president ever take office, this executive order must be issued on the very first day. Trump waited too long but that mistake need not be repeated.
Just to note something for the record: today, 11 July 2022, during his ‘Raw Deal’ broadcast, Fetzer again falsely claimed Trump ‘made America energy independent’ — catch the first hour when the program is up on Fetzer’s Bitchute channel.
And regarding Trump, here’s an interesting story:
Donald Trump Calls for Drug Dealers and Human Traffickers to Get Death Penalty
To appreciate the idiocy of this, recall that Trump touted and signed the ‘First Step Act’, which reduced sentences, including retroactively, for many serious drug offenses; federal inmates were released as a result — now here he’s calling for those who sell drugs to get the death penalty — at any moment, the man is capable of blurting out the most incoherent nonsense — at times he’s a real buffoon.
But at least he made America ‘energy independent’.
LOL
Eah, I see no reason why The First Step Act and the death penalty for drug sellers cannot exist at the same time. You are taking a suggestion he made on the campaign trail in a speech with very little if no specifics and comparing it to a carefully orchestrated bill that attempts to reduce recidivism of those currently in the system. With the outrageous influx of fentanyl because of Biden’s coddling illegal immigration, this country is faced with a drug problem worse than ever. Policies have to change to accommodate the current atmosphere. You seem to have a serious case of TDS that has clouded your ability to think and adapt to the times.
And speaking of answering questions, everyone should note that Fetzer did not bother to answer mine: I simply asked him to justify the claim that ‘Trump made America energy independent’, one he makes repeatedly.
Of course the claim is false, even ridiculous — the US became the world’s top oil producer sometime in 2017, i.e. shortly after Trump assumed office, meaning Trump was not responsible for it — this was due to massive investment in fracking over the previous decade, primarily under Obama, when oil prices were high — even so, America imported then, as it does now, approx 30% of its required daily oil supply — and imports specifically from Russia were never more than about 2% of total US supply, as NBC notes here:
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/data-how-much-american-oil-comes-russia-n1291369
So banning imports from Russia cannot account for the recent massive rise in the price of refined petroleum products in the US — Biden is a senile idiot/puppet, but he was onto something when he suggested US retailers should lower the price of gas at the pump — he was indirectly asking why prices are so high when there is no real scarcity.
Fetzer confuses real scarcity with perceived scarcity due to the high price of oil — but the price of oil is largely determined in the futures markets, where the price always includes expectations of future instability, which are very high right now — any market is also susceptible to corruption, and there is definitely some manipulation and corruption in the oil markets.
TDS (Trump derangement syndrome) is real; I never saw a president treated as badly and unfairly as Trump was — but Trumptardism is also real, and Fetzer seems to have a mild case of it, which I can overlook because Trump is obviously still the lesser of two evils — however Fetzer should stop making the false claim that Trump ‘made America energy independent’.
This thing represents your country. Look at his eyes. He’s drugged. In the first video, he reads the prompts on the screen. His assistant press secretary lies and denies it, saying he said, “let me” repeat the line…(obviously dismissing that he also said “end of quote”). The second video slows it down and substantiates Biden is a lost soul. One may have compassion, as he’s old and demented ….some of us will get there. That is understandable. BUT, do we want someone with these shortcomings in a position of power whose poor decisions have and could cost us dearly and possibly irreparably? He has to go. It’s way past that time.
https://twitter.com/KyleMartinsen_/status/1545453047551328257
Enter Emilie Simons, Biden’s assistant press secretary – who straight-up lies, claiming Biden ackshually said: “let me repeat the line.”
No. He said, “let me repeat that line.”
— Emilie Simons (@EmilieSimons46) July 8, 2022
https://twitter.com/disclosetv/status/1545451534611320836
Here’s Reagan on Johnny Carson in 1975 speaking of who really runs the government…
…….just listen for 2 minutes. Sure as hell wish he had thought of a “Schedule F” when he was president. Good lawd, we would be in some damn good shape some 40 odd years later, eh?
https://youtu.be/CNmnmdtcdcg?t=56
It’s too bad Trump did not very publicly attempt this much earlier in his administration; I think he would have gotten a lot of support from Americans, the vast majority of whom are ‘at will’ employees, and would agree that there is no reason federal employees should not have the same status — theoretically, Trump could also have forced layoffs by refusing to sign an omnibus budget that did not cut money for agencies in the Executive Branch to the point they would need to reduce headcount; in this case he still would not have been able to target specific individuals, but perhaps via his appointees he would have been able to influence decisions about employees who would leave — in the end, although he generally faced unreasonable opposition from day one, Trump was not a very competent administrator of the executive branch.
OT
Dr Fetzer, in your broadcasts you have repeatedly made the claim that Trump made America ‘energy independent’.
Could you define *exactly* what you mean by that? — i.e. what metric, or metrics, do you use to determine ‘energy independence’, and what is your source for these metrics? — please be *specific*.
Also, what do you think Trump personally did to bring about this ‘energy independence’? — please be *specific* here too.
Thanks in advance.
Eah…You would admit Schedule F was a brilliant move, would you not? The idea that he did not initiate it at the beginning of his administration simply goes to the fact that he did not know how deep the swamp was……still is. And who does? Very few and certainly no other president in my lifetime (save JFK) even hinted at taking it on. Give Trump a break…he was up against it like no other president. Did I like his Warp Speed? Certainly not. But, again, that was a result of bad advisors. I will admit he should come out NOW and apologize for that decision. It’s going to cost him many votes come 2024.
Since I think questions ought to be answered, I will answer yours:
>You would admit Schedule F was a brilliant move, would you not?
No, I would definitely not call it ‘brilliant’ — it is long overdue; the absurd protections for civil servants, and doing something about them, has long been discussed — I would be fully in favor of also doing something about their benefits too: pensions, healthcare — there is no reason someone working for the federal government should have benefits superior to what the average American worker receives — so I would eliminate their pensions and force them to participate in 401k or 401k-like plans (with some matching, since many employers match), or contribute to an IRA — most Americans have nothing more than that — regarding healthcare, I would also make sure federal employees are treated like average Americans.
Some people who excel in the natural sciences (physics, chemistry, etc) and engineering can be called ‘brilliant’, but not someone who proposes that the president, as (effectively) the head of the Executive Branch, ought to be able to fire workers.
Eah, you admit it was (if Biden had not rescinded it) something that should be done and you also suggested additional moves, some with which I agree. If you care not to call it brilliant, that is certainly your prerogative. But I will add that brilliance goes beyond the sciences you mention and certainly into many fields, not the least of which would be artistic and creative endeavors.
I think it was a great move and would have opened the door to ridding ourselves of dictators like Fauci, the CDC and FDA among myriad others, helping to save countless children’s lives. So, I will continue to call it brilliant; unafraid to give Trump the credit he’s due…especially under the conditions that challenged him during his administration.
Here’s a link to the Creating Schedule F in the Excepted Service:
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/10/26/2020-23780/creating-schedule-f-in-the-excepted-service
I saw that post, Don….but what do you think of the genius of Trump’s schedule F?
Just to add, I am quite curious as to WHY Trump has never brought this up as a talking point. Or has he….anyone?
And why did it take him so long?
It’s almost like a scripted release (and maybe that’s a good idea to counter some of the dem insanity). I do prefer to think Trump is on the side of the people. I see no one else out there on the side of We the People who has the power and the track record of Trump.
Holy Moses! What a revelatory article. How the heck did I miss schedule F? And I thought I was on top of it. This explains much of how they got away with it all…especially the ‘vid hoax. And it of course, explains how Fauci is still around. Remarkable…just remarkable. Truly, the deep state is not “as deep” as we think. It’s hidden in plain sight. …..It was a coup initiated and run by un-elected bureaucrats. And Trump was on top of it from almost day one. He may have his faults, but he is doubtless one of the more intelligent and aware presidents we have ever had.
…and now we have rumours circulating that Hillary may try it again. Go for it, beetch…..you will be destroyed…this time forever.
You’re up, Don….go for it.
I posted this 5min. video this morning. It shows the Jan 6 people being invited into the Capitol by the Police which were controlled by N. Pelosi. It was a sting operation that allowed the Police to photo and ID them so that they could later arrest them. Most have been arrested and now are in jail.
https://youtu.be/VpuqHAZ9P7M
Attachment
It would indeed provide for exoneration if the defendants were ever allowed to have a trial. 18 months in prison with no trial … and counting.
BTW, when is Julian Assange ever going to get his trial?
Who gave the Capitol police the order to allow the demonstrators into the building? Was it Nancy?
To me it appeared to be a jolly old goodtime. Police taking selfies with the guests and showing them where certain offices were located. Golly gee, just a fun time for all.
Attachment
Again, Don….
Will Two says:
July 4, 2022 at 4:25 pm
I saw that post, Don….but what do you think of the genius of Trump’s schedule F?
Yes, Trump had his finger on the destruction of the Washington mob gangsters. The Dems have gone full blast on destroying his efforts.
Also, it appears that the Dems have gone back to the horror days of the Obama fake shootings. It seems to now be on nonstop, again….and with the same tired scripts with slight variations.
Yes, he did, Don. And I think many have underestimated Trump’s intelligence. He’s not just a showman. I have to wonder if Schedule F would have stopped what’s now going on in CA. Toni, do you have any inside scoop? According to the following article from Mike Adams, ALL independent truckers will be forced off the road this week in CA. That’s 70,000 truckers. ….a staggering figure. SCOTUS would have nothing to do with it which makes me wonder of this is being done outside government control. How can they force these truckers to join a union? They can’t….at least not according to law. Would the implementation of Schedule F have stopped this? But, remember, this is Mike Adams who has a rider at the start of his videos stating the following is for entertainment purposes only.
“TruckPOCALYPSE” begins in California this week as 70,000 truckers forced off the roads due to Democrat idiocracy
Tuesday, July 05, 2022 by: Mike Adams
Tags: Collapse, food supply, Joe Biden, left cult, logistics, Lunacy, rationing, scarcity, supply chain, transport, transportation, truckers, White House
This article may contain statements that reflect the opinion of the author
(Natural News) The California Truckers Association is warning that 70,000 independent truck owner-operators will be taken off the roads of California later this week as a draconian new law, “AB-5” kicks in: (emphasis ours)
In addition to the direct impact on California’s 70,000 owner-operators who have seven days to cease long-standing independent businesses, the impact of taking tens of thousands of truck drivers off the road will have devastating repercussions on an already fragile supply chain, increasing costs and worsening runaway inflation.
The new law, passed and signed by Democrats, essentially outlaws independent contractors from operating transport trucks in the state of California. When it goes into effect later this week — after the US Supreme Court refused to intervene last week — California will be hit with a “truckpocalypse” shutdown of transportation capacity.
While some transportation companies maintain full-time employees to operate long haul rigs, many drivers are “owner-operators” who own their own trucks and who pick up contract jobs from the hundreds of shipping and transport companies that operate in California. These owner-operators pay their own taxes, buy their own health insurance and cover their own fuel costs. California Democrats, however, think that independent freedom for truckers should be criminalized, since they want all drivers to be union workers in corrupt union organizations that Democrats routinely use for money laundering operations (dems vote to award public money to the unions, and the unions agree to kick back campaign donations to Democrats).
So they’ve outlawed independent contractors in the trucking industry. The new law goes into effect this week and is expected to cause widespread logjams, cost increases and delays to transportation across America. Say hello to accelerated food inflation…
Catastrophic collapse of trucking and transportation in California
As FreightWaves.com reports, the implications of this law will be nothing short of catastrophic for transportation infrastructure in and out of California:
Matt Schrap, the CEO of the Harbor Trucking Association, which represents drayage companies, issued a brief but harsh statement in response to the high court’s decision.
“It is extremely unfortunate that this Court couldn’t see through their own political agenda to identify the obvious preemption that exists under the F4A,” he wrote in an email to FreightWaves. “This ruling will have far reaching impacts that will upend the industry as we know it. Tens of thousands of truck drivers will be driven out of established business relationships within a week. No doubt this will further stress the supply chain.”
Not only do transport trucks carry food and consumer goods in and out of California, they routinely distribute ocean freight containers from California ports to inland destinations. The containers move from ships to trucks, and those trucks take them to retail distribution hubs or domestic manufacturers for offloading.
Under California’s new AB5 law, the logistics challenge of receiving good carried by road are going to be a nightmare. Added to this is the fact that Union Pacific railroad is already slashing the number of rail cars it carries for existing customers (such as CF Industries, a fertilizer manufacturer), which means railroads have no excess capacity to pick up the slack from trucking.
America’s logistics infrastructure is crumbling. And with diesel engine oil additives in short supply and expected to run out in about 7 weeks, a huge question looms over America: How will food, coal, spare parts and consumer goods get delivered anywhere? If the truckers are blocked from California’s highways, and diesel engine oil is running out, and railroads are slashing rail cars, and diesel fuel itself is running out in some areas, the scenario for the second half of 2022 doesn’t look very rosy at this point.
Stolen elections have catastrophic consequences.
https://naturalnews.com/2022-07-05-truckpocalypse-begins-in-california-truckers-forced-off-the-roads.html
https://www.brighteon.com/5b129bb4-9a37-4451-868f-a8453d16dd10
Adams rider (one could consider this rider a bit “tongue in cheek”…but it’s there, nonetheless:
Attachment
Will2…..I’ll keep on the lookout for trucker info here in CA. I have some contacts in the trucking industry.
My brother drove trucks nationwide for a few years. One of his cargo receivers gave him a bag of potatoes. All was ok until he was searched & checked through the Main Exit Gate. He was almost arrested for theft.
I’ll report here if I come across anything.
Don….I would assume a story of this magnitude would be all over CA…..have you heard anything at all? 70,000 truckers possibly losing there jobs should be on the first page.
Will2…..the media in CA is tightly controlled by both the Dems and CIA Operation Mockingbird.
There’s a lot of talk-radio here. All of the dozens of Hosts believe all of the ”official” stories about all of the hoaxes of the past decades. I never watch TV and I guess that radio is my next to tune out.
I won’t hear about the truckers until its a total drop-dead crisis….and then only one side.