Nation
Denver mayor flies to visit family for Thanksgiving, despite telling people to avoid travel

Denver Mayor Michael Hancock (D) boarded a flight on Wednesday to Houston, going against his warnings that people should avoid traveling for Thanksgiving this year and try to stay close to home if possible, with coronavirus cases spiking across the country, NBC 9 News in Denver reported.
According to 9 News, Hancock’s spokeswoman confirmed that the mayor was traveling to Houston on Wednesday to visit his daughter in Mississippi, and that his wife is already there.
30 minutes before his flight, Hancock tweeted that people should “avoid travel, if you can” in order to fight against the spread of the novel coronavirus.
“As he has shared, the Mayor is not hosting his traditional large family dinner this year, but instead traveling alone to join his wife and daughter where the three of them will celebrate Thanksgiving at her residence instead of having them travel back to Denver,” a statement from the mayor’s spokesperson reads. “Upon return, he will follow all necessary health and safety guidance and quarantine.”
Additionally, 9 News obtained an email in which Hancock’s assistant said the mayor would be out of office from Wednesday to Friday.
In a November 18 email sent to city staff, per 9 News, the mayor wrote, “as the holidays approach, we all long to be with our families with person, but with the continued rise in cases, I’m urging you to refrain from travel this Thanksgiving holiday. For my family that means cancelling our traditional gathering of our extended family.”
Hancock also said in this email that anyone who travels out of state should quarantine for 14 days and that employees who can’t work from home will need to use their paid time off for the leave, 9 News added.
As of Wednesday, there have been 33,971 total coronavirus cases in Denver and 494 deaths. This all comes as the seven-day moving average of new cases in the county is 688, according to the Denver Public Health COVID-19 monitoring dashboard, .
Furthermore, one in 41 Coloradans is currently infectious with COVID-19, which the highest level since the pandemic began, Gov. Jared Polis (D) said on Tuesday.
This also comes after the governor of California, Gavin Newsom (D), was caught breaking his own COVID-19 restrictions by attending a birthday dinner that had more guests than legally allowed in that area of California and had to publicly apologize last week.
RELATED: Gov. Newsom apologizes for attending guideline-breaking party, says it was a ‘bad mistake’
You can follow Douglas Braff on Twitter @Douglas_P_Braff.

Nation
Biden Administration Proposes Rule to Fortify Federal Bureaucracy Against Republican Presidency

In a strategic move, the Biden administration has unveiled a proposed rule aimed at reinforcing the left-leaning federal bureaucracy, potentially hindering future conservative policy implementations by Republican presidents. This move has raised concerns about the efficacy of democratic elections when a deep-seated bureaucracy remains largely unchanged, regardless of electoral outcomes.
Key points of the situation include:
Presidential Appointees vs. Career Bureaucrats: Of the 2.2 million federal civil workers, only 4,000 are presidential appointees. The vast majority, made up of career bureaucrats, continue in their roles from one administration to the next. This continuity is facilitated by rules that make it exceedingly difficult to discipline or replace them, resulting in a bureaucracy that tends to lean left politically.
Union Political Affiliation: A striking 95% of unionized federal employees who donate to political candidates support Democrats, according to Open Secrets, with only 5% favoring Republicans. This significant political skew among federal workers raises questions about the potential for political bias in the execution of government policies.
Obstructionism and Challenges for GOP Presidents: Some career bureaucrats have been accused of obstructing Republican presidents’ agendas, leading to policy delays and challenges. For example, during the Trump administration, career lawyers in the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division declined to challenge Yale University’s discrimination against Asian American applicants, prompting Trump to seek legal counsel from other divisions. The case was subsequently dropped when Joe Biden took office.
Biden’s Countermeasures: President Biden has taken steps to protect the bureaucracy’s status quo. In October 2020, Trump issued an executive order aiming to reclassify federal workers who make policy as at-will employees, but Biden canceled it upon taking office.
Proposed Rule and Congressional Actions: The rule unveiled by the Biden administration seeks to further impede a president’s ability to reinstate Trump’s order. Additionally, some Democrats in Congress are pushing to eliminate the president’s authority to reclassify jobs entirely. This has been referred to as an attempt to “Trump-proof the federal workforce.”
Republican Candidates’ Pledge: GOP candidates such as President Donald J Trump, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Ron DeSantis have pledged to address this issue. According to reports from Fox News, Ramaswamy has gone further, advocating for the elimination of half or more of civil service positions, emphasizing the need for accountability.
Debate on the Merit of the Civil Service: While Democrats and their media allies argue that civil service protects merit over patronage, critics contend that the system has evolved into a form of job security for federal workers with minimal accountability. Federal employees often receive higher salaries and more substantial benefits than their private-sector counterparts.
In summary, the Biden administration’s proposed rule and broader actions to protect the federal bureaucracy have sparked a debate over the role of career bureaucrats in shaping government policy.
Republican candidates are vowing to address these concerns, highlighting the need for accountability and ensuring that government agencies work in alignment with the elected president’s agenda. This ongoing debate raises important questions about the relationship between the bureaucracy and the democratic process in the United States.
Information in this article was retrieved from Fox News.
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