Department of Offense

I won't do more than mention and explain the state of the once-proud United States Department of Defense, created in 1947 by merging the War (now Army) and Navy Departments and adding the Air Force and the Marine Corps their own departments and secretaries and turning all that into one well-oiled machine.  The Defense Department hasn't had a full-time secretary since December 2018, and its acting secretary, Patrick Shanahan, was involved in a domestic-violence case.  After having said his then-wife and son, in the earlier part of this decade, threatened both of them, it now turns out that she was threatened by both of them.  And Shanahan was slated to be made the permanent Secretary of Defense, even though his six-month "performance" in office suggested no special aptitude for the job before all of this personal information got out.   

The Defense Department is running on fumes at a time when war with Iran is more of a possibility and the border is out of control for reasons not having to do with the migrants who seek to cross it.  And oh yes, there's no permanent Homeland Security Secretary either.  Now, I've heard that Army Secretary Mark Esper, the new acting Defense Secretary, is a pretty bright guy, and he works well with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.  He's likely going to be nominated to be former Defense Secretary James Mattis's permanent replacement, and he has a good chance of getting Senate confirmation.  Let's hope so, because when it comes to national security, there is no room or partisanship.

Which is why I never mentioned in this blog the individual responsible for appointing Cabinet secretaries.