It’s a “request”. But come Jan 17 it’ll be the kind of request that can’t be rejected.
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not sure how this is defined legally when Trump repeats this as POTUS but there are a few methods for agencies to block requests from the higher-ups.
one common one is to destroy records, proved and tested by the German domestic intelligence service: the boards of inquiry had some pointed questions regarding the right-wing terror group NSU and the intelligence service shredded the files. totally unintentional. honestly!
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In less than eight years the DoE is going from being headed by a Nobel laureate to … Rick Perry.
'Nuff said.
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That’s going to be fun to watch, in a black-humor sort of way. Because what’s really killing coal is not regulation, it’s price competition … from fracking.
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Good point.
It’s difficult to fire federal employees (so far), but easy to move them into useless positions. I predict a lot of shuffling. And the cards will be stacked against us.
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He’s a corporatist. Of course he’s going to ‘drain the swamp’ by replacing politicians with people from the corporate world and he’s going to make sure the U.S. is a government by the corporations and for the corporations. Isn’t this what we expected all along?
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I say, it’s genuinely astonishing I haven’t seen that pic before now. There are rich veins of satire yet to be tapped, it seems, even though they’ll surely be depleted in short order at this rate.
(Suddenly it occurs to me that Trump’s insistence about not using a particular picture was a clever attempt at distraction.)
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No problem. I’ll name 'em!
Dear Transition Team,
Everyone who is fucking paying attention.
All the best,
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Also: coal mining jobs are disappearing because of automation. A double whammy that nothing Trump does could overcome. Not that he was ever going to even try…
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Who can photoshop the extending jaws and turn this into an animated gif?
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I’ll send the request to the DNC.
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And when, someday, we elect a President with a brain and he/she decides to clean out DHS and TSA and DEA and they refuse to hand over names and job titles of public servants on the public payroll behind the abominations they commit on the Constitution daily, what arguments will you use then?
I’m not sure what is worse: Our President-elect or the fact that entire branches of government seem to think they no longer have to obey the Chief Executive and can decide to do or not do things as they please.
Like him or not, he appears to be the legally elected President. Unless we want to see this country turn into a third world country where everyone in government thinks he or she can just take over anytime the current boss displeases them, we better find legal ways to make this term work.
The Republic can survive Trump but it might not survive everyone thinking that just because they do not like the guy in charge, they can throw out the entire system and do whatever they please
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Because Russia has good animators? 
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How surprisingly similar to the CIA’s erasing some torture tapes. Much like your example, i’m sure that it was completely accidental.
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Well, he could ban fracking or load it down with regulations to make coal competitive. Somehow I doubt that’s going to happen. Besides, to get the jobs back he’d have to ban automation in coal mining (or regulate etc) making it even less competitive, so fracking …
Nope. Ain’t happenin’.
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Can the Department of Energy refuse a President’s request?
All it means, I think, is that the current Secretary of Energy declined to comply with the Trump transition team’s request.
When Rick “Oops” Perry becomes head of DoE on January 20, 2017, and he installs his minions in high- and mid-level positions in the DoE, you can be pretty sure the request will be honored.
And the purges will begin. Reports of climate change scientists’ mass demise at DoE have been only slightly exaggerated.
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