# Magellan01 is a fascist. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 1, 2011, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magellan01-is-a-fascist/569765 "2011-02-01T08:12:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magellan01-is-a-fascist/569765/21 "2011-02-01T16:47:28Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > The positions are frequently bought. > > Noone buys the ambassadorship to places like China but you might be able to buy an ambassadorship to some tropical paradise with little strategic significance. What you are suggesting is a direct violation of 18 USC 211, which prohibits the exchange of campaign contributions for appointive office. Now, if there is no quid pro quo between support for a presidential candidate and later appointment to any office – whether Secretary of Commerce, an ambassadorship, or whatever, then it is all perfectly legal. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magellan01-is-a-fascist/569765/22 "2011-02-01T16:52:00Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > Ambassadors change every time the administration changes While this is usually the case, it’s not always true. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magellan01-is-a-fascist/569765/23 "2011-02-01T16:59:35Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Ambassadorships are appointed by the President. They can be political, but I’ve never heard of them being outright bought. Beyond that, the only ambassadorships that are political are those to the “nice” spots…Luxembourg or the UK, not Liberia so much. And I wouldn’t say they’re outright bought, but they do tend to go to people who have donated money to the President. If you look at the last few ambassadors to Luxembourg, for instance, the most recent one is Cynthia Stroum, who was a bug donor to Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell. The one before was Ann Wagner, former Missouri Republican chair and big donor to Bush’s 2004 campaign, and before her, Peter Terpeluk, Jr, who was a 2000 Bush “Pioneer”. ---
**Author:** ![Death\_of\_Rats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a6a055/32.png) [@Death\_of\_Rats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Death_of_Rats)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magellan01-is-a-fascist/569765/24 "2011-02-01T17:17:28Z")
Those appointments are not so much “bought”, but handed out as rewards for politcal allies. “You raised a million dollars for my campaign? Here, vacation in Luxembourg for a few years on the Government’s dime!” “You ran the voter drive for that flipped State X for me? Here go to the UK and develop some foriegn experience for your Senate campaign in two years.” ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magellan01-is-a-fascist/569765/25 "2011-02-01T17:21:09Z")
That’s exactly what happens. It’s not as gross as slipping the Prez a million bucks and getting a consulate in Tahiti. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magellan01-is-a-fascist/569765/26 "2011-02-01T17:25:06Z")
> [@Latro](#): > > Ditto Bingo! > > I mean, from what I gather US diplomats often get their posts as rewards for campaign contributions during the election process. > Is this really true? > If so, what kind of level of competence can you expect of your diplomatic corps. There’s this cable written by the US “Man in Dagestan”, detailing in a masterful and entertaining way an important wedding in one of the hottest spots on the planet. Whoever this diplomat is, he’s no amateur (and no amateur drinker if he even tried to keep up with the locals for form’s sake): > **[US embassy cables: A wedding feast, the Caucasus way](https://www.theguardian.com/world/us-embassy-cables-documents/76763)** > > Cable sent 31/08/2006C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 05 MOSCOW 009533 ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magellan01-is-a-fascist/569765/27 "2011-02-01T17:28:25Z")
> [@Kyla](#): > > FWIW, a professor of mine in grad school was a retired ambassador and career diplomat. He once told me that about 40% of ambassadors are political appointees, so the majority of ambassadors are still career diplomats. This is true - My Mother’s cousin was a career diplomat, who was appointed Ambassador because his extensive work in a particular country. ---
**Author:** ![JeffB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeffb/32/188_2.png) [@JeffB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JeffB)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magellan01-is-a-fascist/569765/28 "2011-02-01T17:35:07Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > If you look at the last few ambassadors to Luxembourg, for instance, the most recent one is Cynthia Stroum, who was a **bug** donor to Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magellan01-is-a-fascist/569765/29 "2011-02-01T17:47:51Z")
> [@Binarydrone](#): > > Perhaps, just perhaps, the real threat to national security is all of these so-called diplomats that are running around talking shit about heads of state and are bungling and incompetent enough to do so it writing. > > But that could just be me. So, you think that a diplomat documenting what a foreign head of state is really like is totally useless? Doesn’t it matter if the guy is a genius, or corrupt, or someone who can’t say “good morning” without notes? As for it being in writing, you realize that there are frequently a few timezones between an embassy and Washington, that the people needing the information aren’t going to be on the phone, and that diplomatic cables are traditionally highly secret until released? ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magellan01-is-a-fascist/569765/30 "2011-02-01T17:48:48Z")
> [@Ravenman](#): > > He [**Magellan01**] is indeed a dolt, but I have to get one related comment off my chest: > > Every single comment I’ve ever seen **gonzomax** write has barely been on the same topic as what people are actually discussing. I mean, there’s a healthy debate going on about harm to US interests, whether Assange is a criminal, and other weighty matters, with compelling points on both sides of those issues. > > And here comes **gonzomax** , offering his two cents about classified lunch menus being bad, and fucking up the punctuation, as usual. > > Seriously, the rest of the intelligent world could be discussing global warming, and this numbnuts would drop in to tell us that his cat’s breath smells like cat’s food. Thank you, **ralphwiggummax**. And just so we are clear on this, the period goes right after the word, and THEN there’s a space (or two, your choice). > > Not caring very much about the lives of most of the posters here, I am compelled to ask: is there some back story to his stupidity? Has he mentioned being dropped on his head as a child? Huge amounts of hallucinogens turning his grey matter to Swiss cheese? Is 'Tard his first language? There must be an explanation. The point was that we over classify. It had been a trend for many years and well reported . I apologize if you are unable to handle hyperbole. In the future i will check to see if you are in the thread and then dummy it down to your level. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magellan01-is-a-fascist/569765/31 "2011-02-01T17:49:40Z")
re: Ambassadors/State Dept… I’m kind of going out on a limb here, but could it possibly be that all these extremely high-falutin’ people we got on the job might be a little too high and mighty to have a real sense of what regular folks on the ground think in some of these places? We do seem to miss the mark more than you’d think we would on this stuff. I’m not saying we should hire Jethro, but is it possible that State Dept. folks are a little too fancy-pants to be accurately supposing the motivations of non-fancy-pants commoners? Or maybe the underlings do OK, but their bosses screw things up? ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magellan01-is-a-fascist/569765/32 "2011-02-01T17:49:54Z")
> [@Death\_of\_Rats](#): > > Those appointments are not so much “bought”, but handed out as rewards for politcal allies. > “You raised a million dollars for my campaign? Here, vacation in Luxembourg for a few years on the Government’s dime!” “You ran the voter drive for that flipped State X for me? Here go to the UK and develop some foriegn experience for your Senate campaign in two years.” I suspect most people appointed as ambassadors for political reasons consider the salary they get trivial. The prestige probably has a lot to do with it. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magellan01-is-a-fascist/569765/33 "2011-02-01T18:00:01Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > No. Ambassadorships can be political appointments (though not bought for contributions that I’m aware of), but everything under Ambassador is earned internally within the State Department, and it’s a tough gig to get. My dad was career State Department who toured at several foreign service posts. You have to have your shit together to get those jobs. There’s a killer foreign service exam you have to take when you apply (my dad said only like one in a thousand even pass the test, but he might have been exaggerating), and my dad also had a prior 20 years as an officer in the Air Force and two Masters Degrees on his resume. That’s the kind of background it takes just to get _into_ the foreign service. Then you get shit posts in places like Liberia and Guinea Bissau before you end up with consulates like where my dad ended up retiring (in Rio). > > Ambassadorships are appointed by the President. They can be political, but I’ve never heard of them being outright bought. Its more like 10% Its selective but a LOT of federal government service is selective. “Generalist candidates take the Foreign Service Officer Test (FSOT), a written exam testing their knowledge of U.S. and world affairs. Those who pass the FSOT (25 to 30 percent of candidates)[11][12] have their resume and life experiences screened by the Qualifications Evaluation Panel (QEP). After the screening process, approximately one third of those that pass the FSOT are invited to an oral assessment, administered in person in Washington, D.C. and other major cities throughout the United States. Approximately 10% of the original applicants at the written exam will ultimately pass the oral assessment.[11]” Ambassadorships can and have been effectively bought. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magellan01-is-a-fascist/569765/34 "2011-02-01T18:01:54Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > While this is usually the case, it’s not always true. Its true for the ones that are purchased. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magellan01-is-a-fascist/569765/35 "2011-02-01T18:06:57Z")
Cite that they have been purchased? ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magellan01-is-a-fascist/569765/36 "2011-02-01T18:13:12Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > If you look at the last few ambassadors to Luxembourg, for instance, the most recent one is Cynthia Stroum, who was a bug donor to Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell. Really? Then who’s the U.S. Ambassador to Klendathu? ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magellan01-is-a-fascist/569765/37 "2011-02-01T18:24:04Z")
> [@An\_Arky](#): > > re: Ambassadors/State Dept… > > I’m kind of going out on a limb here, but could it possibly be that all these extremely high-falutin’ people we got on the job might be a little too high and mighty to have a real sense of what regular folks on the ground think in some of these places? > > We do seem to miss the mark more than you’d think we would on this stuff. I’m not saying we should hire Jethro, but is it possible that State Dept. folks are a little too fancy-pants to be accurately supposing the motivations of non-fancy-pants commoners? Or maybe the underlings do OK, but their bosses screw things up? Careerists work their way up to those “high-falutin’” positions over many years. Most start in the visa mill, which means they are talking to and working with locals every single day. When they finally move on to a specialty such as economics or political postitions, they are still working with local officials every single day and become very knowledgeable about regional issues. With any luck, these folks end up as an ambassador or DCM to a country in their area of expertise. Doesn’t always happen, but even so, they have the background and ability to quickly come up to speed on a country’s politics, etc. Granted, some career ambassadors would better serve their country by working in a post office in Indiana, but most are competent professionals. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magellan01-is-a-fascist/569765/38 "2011-02-01T18:29:19Z")
> [@gonzomax](#): > > The point was that we over classify. It had been a trend for many years and well reported . I apologize if you are unable to handle hyperbole. In the future i will check to see if you are in the thread and then dummy it down to your level. Quiet, Ralphie. The adults are talking. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magellan01-is-a-fascist/569765/39 "2011-02-01T18:32:04Z")
Wait, is **Magellan01** an ambassador now? ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magellan01-is-a-fascist/569765/40 "2011-02-01T18:44:10Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > While this is usually the case, it’s not always true. I don’t think this is accurate. About a year ago, I met the current US ambassador to Russia. He had been appointed under the Bush administration, and he talked about the process of being appointed under a new administration. He said that they get an official cable from the new president, either asking them to serve the new president, or asking them to resign their post. Usually career diplomats are asked to keep their spots, while political appointees are asked to resign. I forget why we’re talking about this now. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magellan01-is-a-fascist/569765.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magellan01-is-a-fascist/569765.md?page=3)