Yesterday, the world ground to a halt, almost literally, because of a software glitch. Two thoughts ran through my mind almost immediately as the scope of the matter became obvious – 1) There needs to be some mechanism to keep this from happening again, and 2) A bunch of litigators just got very, very rich. The lost money for the airlines alone has to be astronomical. But I am no litigator so I can’t really comment. But as I pondered some mechanism to prevent future occurrences I thought about government and that sent a chill down my spine. Our government in recent days has demonstrated an incompetence that makes yesterday’s computer glitch pale in comparison. I don’t know what the mechanism might be, but if government is involved, they’ll make it worse, not better.

Consider:

1. A sniper found a nest which the crowd could see but the protective details could not and fired upon a former and possibly future POTUS. But by the grace of God the man would be dead. There is much to be determined about the specifics of what went wrong, when and by whom, but incompetence ruled that day.
2. While it is impossible to ever fully prevent attempts upon the lives of any individual, the incompetence obvious in the aforementioned attempt is so obvious that it should have resulted in the immediate resignation of the senior officials involved. Those resignations may, or may not, have been accepted by those to whom they were tendered based on the facts that eventually emerge – but the fact that they were not reflexively and immediately placed on the table – and in the absence of such being offered voluntarily, immediately demanded – shows a depth of managerial incompetence incomprehensible not that long ago.
3. And while we are discussing managerial incompetence, how is it there were no resignations offered in the wake of the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan – Abbey Gate.
4. Finally, there is this, “Iran is capable of producing fissile material — a key component in nuclear weapons — within ‘one or two weeks,’ US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday….” Of course, Blinken et. al. blame Trump and Trump undoubtedly blames the JPCOA. That’s immaterial at this point. Something is deeply incompetent in our government, administrative changes notwithstanding, if we have permitted what is likely the most malign nation on the planet – a nation that uses terrorist proxies – to come to within weeks of a nuclear weapon. Don’t even speak to me about lacking a means of delivery, they have suicidal terrorists for that. (Not to mention they launched missiles at Israel not that long ago.)

It has become trite meme material these days – “You had one job….” But it is not funny – at least not when it comes to national security and protective details of highly placed individuals. We can talk about bureaucratic complexities and the value of positive or negative reinforcement until we are blue-in-the-face but in the end such discussions are but a distraction from the bottom line fact of failure. Back in the day before he went multi-studio, the host had a sound board that featured Samuel L. Jackson in “Die Hard 3” saying, “I don’t like you cause you’re gonna get me killed!” That’s where we are right now. Government incompetence has placed the nation in grave danger.

Much of this stems from an administrative state that found Trump so repulsive that they went rogue. So don’t think another Trump administration can fix this. Not that they won’t try, but the roots of the problem are very, very deep. It should be a goal of a new Trump administration, particularly if Republicans get a clean sweep in the Congress as well, to reform the civil service rules. That will at least allow the process to begin in earnest. Civil Service has to be based on merit. There are jobs that have to be done and done well.

Right now, we are failing at them, and our peril is great – nuclear weapons great.

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