Yep. The fascists are trying to normalize mental illness just like their efforts to normalize every form of perversion, including pedophilia. They are evil.

Their entire agenda is to abuse power, & waste our money, for their evil ends.

FLBear5630 said:

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whiterock said:

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FLBear5630 said:

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whiterock said:

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Realitybites said:

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FLBear, you forget that Americans don't form their opinions about government workers in a vacuum. We form our opinions about government workers by dealing with government workers.

When you say that 99% are pros who do their jobs very well, our day to day experience knows it is an incorrect statement.

Every dedicated public servant in the burearucracy is vastly outnumbered by a legion of squirrel killers.

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very few bureaucrats are technocrats at anything other than exploring the boundaries of bureaucratic power.

it's just how the organism works. bureaucrats very, very rarely think of themselves as servants of the public. Very, very few ask themselves when they have latitude for judgement...."what is fair?"...."How would I want to be treated here." The nature of the job is to look at the law and serve the law, as far as the law allows.

That's how you get bureaucratic reinterpretations inverting law inside-out. That's how you have the plain wording of immigration statute citing "public charge" as an exclusion for entry or presence in the USA being interpreted to mean that someone on welfare benefits, food stamp benefits, unemployment benefits, etc....is not a public charge. It's how you get Title IX, a law written to carve out funding for women to have guaranteed opportunities for the same life lessons that men receive from engaging competitive sports....being used to force women to compete against biological males, having the share showers with biological males, etc....

There is no culture fix there. It is what it is. The only practical way to control it is to prune it back severely from time to time.

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My experience is on the infrastructure side. Just like some in the Defense or Maritime Industry, I doubt there are people building Chinooks or operating Ports that want it to fail. The disconnect may be that I am thinking of "Bureaucrats" in the physical world, not the administrative. I have no experience with Labor or Intel, but I can tell you from 30 years of experience NOBODY at USDOT wants a bridge to fail. Engineers have licenses on the line and potential criminal charges (yes, a bridge collapses because of a screw up or oversight manslaughter charges are possible).

Now the bean counters, that is a different story. I have no love for attorneys, accountants or risk managers! My experience the issue is the Private sector, embedding on projects and sucking it dry. They play a political game and have decisions be made on stuff other than quality and budget. You gut the Fed, you will have 5 times the private sector consultants taking over. Just like Iraq...

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Nobody is complaining about DOT engineers inspecting job sites or DOA meat inspectors swabbing beef carcasses. We're talking about the swamp in Washington and more specifically the use of intel and lawfare against political opponents.

Same for CIA. Its core mission is collection abroad, so most of the anger directed at CIA is misguided. But all those signatures on that letter citing the Biden laptop as Russian disinformation was indeed an egregious abuse of, at minimum, access to classified information. Those nutjobs tried to play politics and did grievous harm to the institution by calling its objectivity into question.

We've seen waaay too many abuses of power under Democrat administrations. Time to prune branches. Time for a few perp walks. Time for a few plea agreements that involve sacrificing pensions to stay out of jail. We simply MUST instill fear into the Senior Executive Service that engaging in partisan activity is not worth the risk. There is no firewall there at the moment. Must be rebuilt.

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As I said, I do not have any Intel experience and can't really weigh in. I defer to you, as you were in it. I do know that when the Private Sector filled the gap firms like Black Rock and others went hogwild. It was not any better, maybe better run? But they fed at the trough just as much. Private sector is not necessarily better.

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well, the contractors were para-military (PM) types, not collectors, so there's an apples/oranges thing there. We did Blackrock to keep US Military out of certain roles. CIA is better structured for that type of contracting, so that's who usually takes the lead.

Vast majority of CIA collectors (like high 90-percentiles) are straight up human source recruiters/handlers (or support) to penetrate identified FOREIGN targets of interest for policymaker consumption...Foreign Intelligence (FI) collection. The career para-military types are a different career category, and a very small percentage of the total. They spend most of their careers doing FI collection alongside FI Case Officers. They are properly considered "cadre" for the moments when a PM requirement erupts. Then, PM types get diverted to build unconventional warfare programs.....contractors, insurgent armies, etc..... When the requirement ends, the contracts end and the PM guys come back to FI to earn their keep until the next bush war somewhere. It's a sound construction based on experience. It's madness to build great unconventional warfare capabilities then flush it all & have to start over a few years later. Keep the best cadre around and you can be pretty nimble on short notice.

My best friend in my CT class was a E6 sniper going the PM route. we car-pooled from DC to the Farm. Wives were best buds. Daughters the same age, etc..... Favorite DCOS was a PM type. Had no military experience, really. Had a forestry degree and was recruited to do photo interpretation in Vietnam, to help identify strike targets and do BDA. He got noticed & picked up. Never got called back to a PM job, in no small part because of his talent in the FI realm = COS, C/Farm, Deputy Division Chief.....almost to the level where things get political. But not quite. Both were super human beings.

The number of politically involved jobs on the ops side at CIA is exceedingly small. It's the analytical side where that stuff happens. The analysts from all the various community agencies are a great big eco-system. They have to meet & coordinate finished intel analysis all day every day. A good player there can make waves. And the creation of NIA made that worse. It just created a whole bunch of beltway bandits with no real connection to intel connection, and sited them in immediate proximity to the policy world, creating a clear pathway for a politically ambitious intel type to make it into the policy realm.

The bright line in FI collection is "we write reports; we do not recommend policy." That's a pretty easy line to avoid when you're handling agents abroad. But when you're rubbing elbows with policymakers and their assistants all day/every day, the lines get smudged pretty badly in a day or two.

Jack Bauer said:

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Let me check with Bill Kristol....ok, Trump is doing a great job.

IT IS AS BAD AS WE THOUGHT IT MIGHT BE. ACTUALLY, WORSE.

— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) November 14, 2024

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LOL I follow Bill. Occasionally reply, just to make fun of him.

whiterock said:

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historian said:

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We know that Hegseth is a great pick for DoD by the insane reactions by woke crazies:

https://notthebee.com/article/check-out-the-very-sane-liberal-reactions-to-trumps-pick-for-defense-secretary

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any selection which does not invite howls of outrage is a poor one.

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No issue, but t they need to go through confirmation. None of this recess ****, answer the questions and vote party line. Appoint who he wants, but they don't get a pass. They go through what everyone else has. Most will be fine on a straight GOP vote, some will have problems from both sides. That is a red flag.

“Government-funded non-governmental organizations” is obviously a contradiction in terms 😂

They are just an illegal arm of the government. https://t.co/j5CRlWK388

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 13, 2024

whiterock said:

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historian said:

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We know that Hegseth is a great pick for DoD by the insane reactions by woke crazies:

https://notthebee.com/article/check-out-the-very-sane-liberal-reactions-to-trumps-pick-for-defense-secretary

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any selection which does not invite howls of outrage is a poor one.

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Exactly.

Marco Rubio as secretary of state was a poor choice.

He should have gone with Rand Paul or Thomas Massie.

The_barBEARian said:

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whiterock said:

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historian said:

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We know that Hegseth is a great pick for DoD by the insane reactions by woke crazies:

https://notthebee.com/article/check-out-the-very-sane-liberal-reactions-to-trumps-pick-for-defense-secretary

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any selection which does not invite howls of outrage is a poor one.

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Exactly.

Marco Rubio as secretary of state was a poor choice.

He should have gone with Rand Paul or Thomas Massie.

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I can impute why you'd want to have a leading isolationist voice as SOS - to keep US firmly isolationist. But SOS isn't the final say on policy. POTUS is. And Trump is not going to be an isolationist. Wasn't first go-around. Won't be this one.

SOS needs to be able to run the agency (something neither Rubio nor Paul or Massie has experience with). SOS needs to be able to engage in personal diplomacy with heads of agencies, heads of state, and heads of international organizations. That is something a US Senator is well prepared to do. Last but not least, SOS needs to be an articulate public voice for American policy and American values. Among the current generation of US political figures, I don't think there is a better orator than Marco Rubio. Dude is world class.

Some presidents will look for more advice on foreign affairs than others. I don't think Trump is terribly interested in policy wonks. He has 4 years of experience followed by 4 years of preparation. He has a very good idea what he wants to do. He's going to be looking for implementors. Rubio will be an articulate spokesman for American policy. He can hire a couple of folks to crack whips at Foggy Bottom. He should do great.

My concern with some of these picks is that it's like he wants basically no one with any background in running the government. Like there is a strict "don't hire anyone who has actually done some of this stuff before".

You need some legacy people around you. Even if only for a while. Even if only to help you understand the current state so you can make changes. And he got it so wrong last time.

I worked for a guy who was a visionary, maybe the best motivator I've ever been around. When he got promoted to a place where he could make changes to the entire company he failed miserably because he neglected to take into account difficult change can be.

He found out quickly that; some people just hate change, not everyone shared his vision, even people that really wanted the change didn't know how to implement it and, most importantly, it's not that easy to change actual systems…ie "we need to move away from calendar months to 4 week reporting periods". SEEMS like an easy change unless everything in your company's 100 year history has been done in calendar months and historical reporting is something you do on a semi daily basis.

nein51 said:

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My concern with some of these picks is that it's like he wants basically no one with any background in running the government. Like there is a strict "don't hire anyone who has actually done some of this stuff before".

You need some legacy people around you. Even if only for a while. Even if only to help you understand the current state so you can make changes. And he got it so wrong last time.

I worked for a guy who was a visionary, maybe the best motivator I've ever been around. When he got promoted to a place where he could make changes to the entire company he failed miserably because he neglected to take into account difficult change can be.

He found out quickly that; some people just hate change, not everyone shared his vision, even people that really wanted the change didn't know how to implement it and, most importantly, it's not that easy to change actual systems…ie "we need to move away from calendar months to 4 week reporting periods". SEEMS like an easy change unless everything in your company's 100 year history has been done in calendar months and historical reporting is something you do on a semi daily basis.

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the technocrat argument is sound, but how has it been working recently?

The cabinet picks are just the tip of the iceberg. There are a couple hundred more beneath that, and they will be the actual hands on the tiller. There will be some gems. Steven Miller & Kash Patel from the first Trump admin are good examples. Those guys know how to execute. We'll have more this go-around.

Trump has had 4 years to plan for this. Don't think he hasn't.

Biden and Harris took money out of Medicare and used it on green energy. Now premiums will skyrocket. And they purposely tried to hide it until after the election. pic.twitter.com/AUnb4pV0l3

— Insurrection Barbie (@DefiyantlyFree) November 15, 2024

whiterock said:

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nein51 said:

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My concern with some of these picks is that it's like he wants basically no one with any background in running the government. Like there is a strict "don't hire anyone who has actually done some of this stuff before".

You need some legacy people around you. Even if only for a while. Even if only to help you understand the current state so you can make changes. And he got it so wrong last time.

I worked for a guy who was a visionary, maybe the best motivator I've ever been around. When he got promoted to a place where he could make changes to the entire company he failed miserably because he neglected to take into account difficult change can be.

He found out quickly that; some people just hate change, not everyone shared his vision, even people that really wanted the change didn't know how to implement it and, most importantly, it's not that easy to change actual systems…ie "we need to move away from calendar months to 4 week reporting periods". SEEMS like an easy change unless everything in your company's 100 year history has been done in calendar months and historical reporting is something you do on a semi daily basis.

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the technocrat argument is sound, but how has it been working recently?

The cabinet picks are just the tip of the iceberg. There are a couple hundred more beneath that, and they will be the actual hands on the tiller. There will be some gems. Steven Miller & Kash Patel from the first Trump admin are good examples. Those guys know how to execute. We'll have more this go-around.

Trump has had 4 years to plan for this. Don't think he hasn't.

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I'm not arguing for a lot of them but I do think there's value in a handful. You definitely don't need or want an entire room full of them but one or two to say "hey when we tried X last time Y was the result, we should probably be mindful of that" or "that didn't work because of Z we need to make sure Z is no longer an issue".

And Trump is a moron (albeit orders of magnitude smarter than Harris) so no I don't think he's got some grand plan and vision.

I'm very thankful he won but im not naive enough to think he somehow gained 50 IQ points the last 4 years.

The_barBEARian said:

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whiterock said:

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historian said:

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We know that Hegseth is a great pick for DoD by the insane reactions by woke crazies:

https://notthebee.com/article/check-out-the-very-sane-liberal-reactions-to-trumps-pick-for-defense-secretary

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any selection which does not invite howls of outrage is a poor one.

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Exactly.

Marco Rubio as secretary of state was a poor choice.

He should have gone with Rand Paul or Thomas Massie.

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I can't believe Trump picked "Little Marco".

historian said:

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America-last losers till the bitter end. https://t.co/0JLkZHfoAP

— Catturd ™ (@catturd2) November 14, 2024

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"I can haz a trillion dollars, sir??"

Don’t ever forget what they did. This was only a few years ago. The “trust the science” cult broke minds and destroyed lives.

The reckoning has arrived. pic.twitter.com/yYC28BipAJ

— MAZE (@mazemoore) November 15, 2024

historian said:

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Biden and Harris took money out of Medicare and used it on green energy. Now premiums will skyrocket. And they purposely tried to hide it until after the election. pic.twitter.com/AUnb4pV0l3

— Insurrection Barbie (@DefiyantlyFree) November 15, 2024

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There are only two forms of "green energy"


Nuclear and Natural Gas


And only 1 of those is renewable


Somehow I doubt the "party of science" was raiding the program so they could build Nuclear reactors

The_barBEARian said:

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whiterock said:

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historian said:

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We know that Hegseth is a great pick for DoD by the insane reactions by woke crazies:

https://notthebee.com/article/check-out-the-very-sane-liberal-reactions-to-trumps-pick-for-defense-secretary

---

any selection which does not invite howls of outrage is a poor one.

---

Exactly.

Marco Rubio as secretary of state was a poor choice.

He should have gone with Rand Paul or Thomas Massie.

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For State????

I would rather have Rand Paul in charge of DSS than Kennedy Jr...

Also, when you clean out Congress of all his fiercest supporters, who is going to fight and approve his legislation?

Or, like Confirmation we don't need that anymore. The President can allocate money and confirm his choices without Congress? That is coming...

A scary prospect that must be avoided at all costs. I hope Trump realizes that and your fears are not realized. You have valid concerns.

historian said:

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A scary prospect that must be avoided at all costs. I hope Trump realizes that and your fears are not realized. You have valid concerns.

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Someone needs to talk some sense into the guy. A little of this is OK, such as Human, Rubio or even Musk to advise of Business and Tech. The guy is a true visionary, and his insights would be fascinating.

Lee from Utah, or someone like him, would do wonders as AG and be credible. I heard Lee and Cotton did not want in. I would have begged Lee that he is who is needed to right the ship at DOJ.

He has some good picks Radcliffe, Walz, Burgham. Love em. Where will Haggerty? Treasury? I was a Mnucnin fan.

But if he pushes too far, it all grinds to a halt. He is one Branch.

A man, upset about men being excluded from girls’ sports, urges the public to shift our focus to a different group of men crossing boundaries in girl’s lives.
pic.twitter.com/mvXDYGplFC

— ICONS (@icons_women) November 15, 2024

I look forward to working with the Trump Administration on fulfilling his promise to cap credit card interest rates at 10%.

We cannot continue to allow big banks to make record profits by ripping off Americans by charging them 25 to 30% interest rates.

That is usury.

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) November 15, 2024

On Tuesday, one week after Donald Trump's decisive victory over Kamala Harris, CNN and MSNBC posted their lowest-rated viewership in the advertiser age demographic of 25-54 in nearly a quarter of a century.

The day was CNN's lowest since June 27, 2000, per Puck News' Dylan Byers, and MSNBC's lowest since August 7, 2001.

NEW: Laken Riley fought for her life for 18 whole minutes before her skull was crushed allegedly by illegal alien Jose Ibarra from Venezuela.

According to Riley's smartwatch, she fought from 910 am until her heart stopped at 928 am.

Prosecutors say Ibarra crushed Riley's skull… pic.twitter.com/dr4mYjpm1d

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) November 15, 2024