In democracies’ political chaos, new model emerges

Across the world, people are questioning truths they had long held to be self-evident, and they are dismissing some of them as fake news. They are replacing traditions they had long seen as immutable with haphazard reinvention.

In France, people who feel left behind by a globalizing world have spent the last few weeks marching and rioting to protest a government they call elitist and out of touch. The government, whose initial dismissiveness seemed to confirm their suspicions, was finally forced to change tack.

Britain is still shuddering from a referendum that its government called to muzzle naysayers, only to see those naysayers win the day. Now, as politicians go through awkward contortions to deliver on that vote, the government is on the verge of collapse.

And in the United States, a president who some accuse of upending ideals that the nation holds dear is aggressively abandoning protocol and customs that have prevailed through a dozen of his predecessors. His core followers are thrilled; many others are getting vertigo.

What’s more, these events are playing out not only in the lands of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, of the Magna Carta and of the Declaration of Independence, but across the Western world.

It’s a similar narrative in each place: People outside the centers of power are rejecting political elites they feel take them for granted, and backing new movements that eschew the rules and that often play to their basest thoughts.

To be clear, this isn’t a weakening of democracy. In a way, it’s the opposite.

https://www.apnews.com/c1272df136f34a54b6faeacebedb7d7b

Mueller files reply to Flynn sentencing memo.

New York Southern District filings in Doe et al v. The Trump Corporation et al

Officials Detail Progress on Security Clearance Investigations, Transfer to DOD

Defense Department and Office of Personnel Management officials continue to make progress on the security clearance backlog even as they move forward with merging the National Background Investigations Bureau into DOD.

Garry Reid, DOD’s director for defense intelligence, and Charles S. Phalen Jr., the NBIB director, testified before the House Armed Services oversight and investigations subcommittee Dec. 12.

Reid said DOD continues to work with interagency partners to transfer the functions, personnel and resources of the bureau to the Defense Security Service. The service will be responsible for conducting background investigations. OPM previously held this responsibility.

https://dod.defense.gov/News/Article/Article/1714061/officials-detail-progress-on-security-clearance-investigations-transfer-to-dod/

Trump’s Inauguration Paid Trump’s Company — With Ivanka in the Middle

As the inaugural committee planned the landmark celebration, internal concerns were raised about whether Trump’s Washington hotel was overcharging for event space. The spending could be a violation of the law.

https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-inc-podcast-trumps-inauguration-paid-trumps-company-with-ivanka-in-the-middle