SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Secretary Ryan Zinke was appointed to lead the Department of the Interior by President Donald Trump. (Photo: U.S. Department of the Interior/Flickr)
Zinke Ridiculed for Flying Special Flag When He Visits Interior Dept DC Office
"His Royal Heinous Sir Ryan of Zinke, clown prince of Interior, has an official flag that is raised when he appears at his departmental seat."
Oct 13, 2017
The Washington Post on Thursday reported that the Department of the Interior raises the department's official flag above its Washington, D.C. headquarters to indicate when Secretary Ryan Zinke visits the office.
Zinke--who has cultivated a reputation for launching unprecedented attacks on public lands and jettisoning key protections for wildlife--"has revived an arcane military ritual that no one can remember ever happening in the federal government," the Post reported.
The Post explained:
A security staffer takes the elevator to the seventh floor, climbs the stairs to the roof and hoists a special secretarial flag whenever Zinke enters the building. When the secretary goes home for the day or travels, the flag--a blue banner emblazoned with the agency's bison seal flanked by seven white stars representing the Interior bureaus--comes down.
In Zinke's absence, the ritual is repeated to raise an equally obscure flag for Deputy Secretary David Bernhardt.
Responding this week to questions from the Washington Post, a spokeswoman for Zinke, a former Navy SEAL commander, defended the Navy flag-flying tradition as "a major sign of transparency."
" Ryan Zinke is proud and honored to lead the Department of the Interior, and is restoring honor and tradition to the department, whether it's flying the flag when he is in garrison or restoring traditional access to public lands," press secretary Heather Swift said in an email.
While flying a flag to indicate that the boss is on-site remains a military custom, it has for the past several years fallen out of practice among the federal government agencies--although it reportedly remains part of the department's official manual. Zinke is a former Navy SEAL.
"I'm all about tradition.... but I kind of have an aversion to militarizing everything in our government," Joseph McMillan, a retired Defense Department official who is a student of flag history and president of the American Heraldry Society, told the Post. "The world doesn't need to know the secretary of the Interior is in the building."
"We're talking about cabinet members and federal buildings, not the Queen of England and Buckingham Palace," added Chris Lu, deputy labor secretary in the Obama administration. In the U.K., royal residences indicate the queen's presence by raising the Royal Standard.
The report provoked several jokes on social media, often accompanied by ridicule of Zinke's agenda as head of the Interior Department.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
The Washington Post on Thursday reported that the Department of the Interior raises the department's official flag above its Washington, D.C. headquarters to indicate when Secretary Ryan Zinke visits the office.
Zinke--who has cultivated a reputation for launching unprecedented attacks on public lands and jettisoning key protections for wildlife--"has revived an arcane military ritual that no one can remember ever happening in the federal government," the Post reported.
The Post explained:
A security staffer takes the elevator to the seventh floor, climbs the stairs to the roof and hoists a special secretarial flag whenever Zinke enters the building. When the secretary goes home for the day or travels, the flag--a blue banner emblazoned with the agency's bison seal flanked by seven white stars representing the Interior bureaus--comes down.
In Zinke's absence, the ritual is repeated to raise an equally obscure flag for Deputy Secretary David Bernhardt.
Responding this week to questions from the Washington Post, a spokeswoman for Zinke, a former Navy SEAL commander, defended the Navy flag-flying tradition as "a major sign of transparency."
" Ryan Zinke is proud and honored to lead the Department of the Interior, and is restoring honor and tradition to the department, whether it's flying the flag when he is in garrison or restoring traditional access to public lands," press secretary Heather Swift said in an email.
While flying a flag to indicate that the boss is on-site remains a military custom, it has for the past several years fallen out of practice among the federal government agencies--although it reportedly remains part of the department's official manual. Zinke is a former Navy SEAL.
"I'm all about tradition.... but I kind of have an aversion to militarizing everything in our government," Joseph McMillan, a retired Defense Department official who is a student of flag history and president of the American Heraldry Society, told the Post. "The world doesn't need to know the secretary of the Interior is in the building."
"We're talking about cabinet members and federal buildings, not the Queen of England and Buckingham Palace," added Chris Lu, deputy labor secretary in the Obama administration. In the U.K., royal residences indicate the queen's presence by raising the Royal Standard.
The report provoked several jokes on social media, often accompanied by ridicule of Zinke's agenda as head of the Interior Department.
The Washington Post on Thursday reported that the Department of the Interior raises the department's official flag above its Washington, D.C. headquarters to indicate when Secretary Ryan Zinke visits the office.
Zinke--who has cultivated a reputation for launching unprecedented attacks on public lands and jettisoning key protections for wildlife--"has revived an arcane military ritual that no one can remember ever happening in the federal government," the Post reported.
The Post explained:
A security staffer takes the elevator to the seventh floor, climbs the stairs to the roof and hoists a special secretarial flag whenever Zinke enters the building. When the secretary goes home for the day or travels, the flag--a blue banner emblazoned with the agency's bison seal flanked by seven white stars representing the Interior bureaus--comes down.
In Zinke's absence, the ritual is repeated to raise an equally obscure flag for Deputy Secretary David Bernhardt.
Responding this week to questions from the Washington Post, a spokeswoman for Zinke, a former Navy SEAL commander, defended the Navy flag-flying tradition as "a major sign of transparency."
" Ryan Zinke is proud and honored to lead the Department of the Interior, and is restoring honor and tradition to the department, whether it's flying the flag when he is in garrison or restoring traditional access to public lands," press secretary Heather Swift said in an email.
While flying a flag to indicate that the boss is on-site remains a military custom, it has for the past several years fallen out of practice among the federal government agencies--although it reportedly remains part of the department's official manual. Zinke is a former Navy SEAL.
"I'm all about tradition.... but I kind of have an aversion to militarizing everything in our government," Joseph McMillan, a retired Defense Department official who is a student of flag history and president of the American Heraldry Society, told the Post. "The world doesn't need to know the secretary of the Interior is in the building."
"We're talking about cabinet members and federal buildings, not the Queen of England and Buckingham Palace," added Chris Lu, deputy labor secretary in the Obama administration. In the U.K., royal residences indicate the queen's presence by raising the Royal Standard.
The report provoked several jokes on social media, often accompanied by ridicule of Zinke's agenda as head of the Interior Department.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.