You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Submit your comments on this article
Government
Stunning Snobbery: Former USDA Scientist Laments Agency's Move To Missouri As The Death Of Expertise
2019-10-22
[Red State] If there is one good thing we can point to ‐ without question ‐ that Donald Trump has done for the American people it is expose the absolute and utter elitist snobbery of the D.C. intellectual/government class.

Case in point: a stunningly whiny and clueless op-ed in the Washington Post on Monday from a former USDA scientist complaining about the Department of Agriculture moving to Kansas City. Agriculture Secretary George Perdue announced last year that the agency would be moving in an attempt to get closer to the "stakeholders". The deadline has come and gone and, unsurprisingly, only 45 of the 568 employees have chosen to move with their employer.
What happened to the rest of them?
Andrew Crane-Droesch, who worked at the USDA until this year, was shocked and appalled at such a naked attempt to purge the agency of "undesirables".

Out of the blue, in August 2018, agriculture secretary George "Sonny" Perdue announced that my agency [would be moving]. He claimed that this would lower costs and bring us closer to "stakeholders." That stated justification was a fig leaf for the administration’s true intentions. We didn’t need to sit next to a corn field to analyze agricultural policy, and Perdue knew that. He wanted researchers to quit their jobs.

One hardly knows where to start with this blatant snobbery, it is so insanely condescending. Crane-Droesch uses scare quotes around "stakeholders" and therein lies the red flag that signals the tragic disconnect between the D.C. elite and the average American. He thinks it is some kind of propaganda tool. It doesn’t even occur to him that he actually works for those stakeholders. It should excite him to be closer to the people he is literally paid to serve.

Joni Ernst gets it.

Joni Ernst
✔
@joniernst
Wow @HawleyMO this is unbelievable. The elitism of the Swamp is out of control. They’re supposed to work for the American people‐not the other way around. https://twitter.com/hawleymo/status/1186318792231735298 ...

Posted by:Besoeker

#19  The FBI wants to tear down and rebuild the J.Edgar Hoover building. As a part of that,
In line with this plan to maximize space availability at FBI-owned locations, reduce overall costs, and leverage operational efficiencies, the FBI will be moving more than 2,500 positions—both employees and contractors—to its owned facilities across the nation, including Clarksburg, West Virginia; Huntsville, Alabama; Pocatello, Idaho; and Quantico, Virginia. It is anticipated that several hundred positions could be shifted to FBI facilities in Clarksburg, West Virginia, and Pocatello, Idaho, while the remainder would be realigned to Huntsville, Alabama. The FBI already has a substantial presence in each of these communities. The FBI first began operations in Pocatello in 1984 and Clarksburg in 1995. The FBI’s presence at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville dates back to the establishment of the Hazardous Devices School in 1971.

FBI Announcement, February 28, 2018
Posted by: Bobby   2019-10-22 19:09  

#18  Beltway = Show Me Your Money state
Posted by: Lex   2019-10-22 17:53  

#17  Isn't that the "Show me state"?

Missouri is the Show Me state.
Posted by: trailing wife   2019-10-22 17:24  

#16  What science? The hyphen guy is an economist.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2019-10-22 17:05  

#15  Quite fitting for down to earth science.

It is, but 'science' isn't the issue these whiny folks are concerned with, their Beltway culture and standard of living is.
Posted by: Mullah Richard   2019-10-22 17:01  

#14  Isn't that the "Show me state"? Quite fitting for down to earth science.
Posted by: European Conservative   2019-10-22 16:22  

#13  Someone just told me this morning that the FBI Security Division will be relocating from D.C. to Huntsville, Alabama. No date given.
Posted by: Besoeker   2019-10-22 11:51  

#12  DEA to Mexico
Education to Caracas
Commerce to Beijing
DOJ to Kiev
Posted by: Lex   2019-10-22 11:50  

#11  Better move would be to relocate the DEA headquarters to Mexico
Posted by: Airandee   2019-10-22 11:47  

#10  Now, now, Warthog. The idea is that there be few of them and a lot of you.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2019-10-22 11:18  

#9  ^ Ok, then Puerto Rico. Or Guam.
Posted by: Lex   2019-10-22 10:51  

#8  Hey..I'm from Cincy and I want these swamp creatures in my home town as much as I would an ISIS colonist.
Posted by: Warthog   2019-10-22 10:38  

#7  The deadline has come and gone and, unsurprisingly, only 45 of the 568 employees have chosen to move with their employer.
Indicating that they were not necessary in the first place. Wasn't it Parkinson's Law that bureaucracies expand because it is easier to get promoted by hiring more underlings?
Posted by: magpie   2019-10-22 09:49  

#6  The deadline has come and gone and, unsurprisingly, only 45 of the 568 employees have chosen to move with their employer.

The rest will go to work for the industries they were basically working for before the move. Lobbyists by any other name. See - institutional capture. Now they'll be on their dime, not the taxpayers.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2019-10-22 07:33  

#5  ERS Publications by this Author
Climate Change and Agricultural Risk Management Into the 21st Century
Agricultural Resources and Environmental Indicators, 2019
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2019-10-22 06:13  

#4  Ref #3: It's like an expat neighborhood in a third world country.

Well it is D.C.
Posted by: Besoeker   2019-10-22 05:26  

#3  They LIKE being in DC. They are among their tribe there. The public schools are the best in the country and pay the highest salaries. They have a nice enclave there and don't want to leave. It's like an expat neighborhood in a third world country. It is well and good for them to rule us. We wouldn't make decisions that were in their favor if they let us decide.
Posted by: Herb McCoy   2019-10-22 05:17  

#2  Clarifying.
Battle lines are starting to be drawn.
Move all the swamp creatures out of D.C.

Just as we dispersed the Federal Reseve Banks and the Circuit Courts across the heartland, so we should force the federal bureaucracy to decamp to Richmond, KC, Cincinnati, Dallas, etc.

Bring it on.
Posted by: Lex   2019-10-22 02:03  

#1  "Stunning" to some possibly.
Posted by: Besoeker   2019-10-22 01:53  

00:00