Ethics, Part II (Or SAEDA? I hardly knew her!)

More on the view of a retired civil servant looking in - pretty sure this is going to be an ongoing series now.

Looking at this weekend's news and shaking my head...  starting with Michael Flynn.  Every year for the past quarter century, in addition to the Ethics briefing I mentioned in my last post, I had to take a special Army course.  There have been a number of names for it (like I said, I took it a lot), but my favorite was SAEDA (that's short for Subversion and Espionage Against the Department of Army) - mostly because I loved having my spy prevention program sound like someone's maiden aunt.  Forget James Bond, we've got Saeda Adams.  Every year, we'd have someone come down from Fort Lewis, and basically tell us not to do *any* of the things that Flynn seems to have done.  Ever.  I mean, I know the guy was a three-star, but he had to have taken these classes - or maybe he got a staffer to do it for him.  But still... either he was incredibly arrogant or incredibly stupid - he was with the DIA, so he had to know that a Russian ambassador - any Russian ambassador on US soil - is going to have their communications tapped.  That's leaving alone all the taking money from a foreign government, palling around with foreign nationals, etc...  Seriously.  Had he been a non-political appointee, his ass would have hit the sidewalk Day 2 of the administration. 

Of course, it's not like his boss understands security either, based on his behavior.  North Korea is testing bombs, and he keeps eating his dinner in the middle of a bunch of complete strangers who just happen to have paid $200K to be able to eat in the same room as him... clearly they're trustworthy (and fiscally prudent) while discussing possible ramifications and responses.  Dude.  Remember all those things you were accusing Hillary of?  Oh, right - that would involve you using your brainpower on something other than your Electoral College win.