Tag: Bureaucracy

The Iron Triangle

This could be that area of South Vietnam during that war……

The heavily forested Cu Chi and Iron Triangle jungles were frequently... | Download Scientific Diagram

…..but it is not for no one gives a shit about that war anymore…..nor the Iron Triangle from the Korean War.

The Iron Triangle I am talking about in this post is a political or should I say a bureaucratic one.

I recent tried to inform my readers about the government contract process……https://lobotero.com/2020/09/29/those-government-contracts/

And that lead me to this particular part of our federal bureaucracy….the Iron Triangle.

But first a few words about the institution we called bureaucracy…..

Red tape. Paper pushers. Bean counters. Vast, cookie-cutter buildings with fluorescent lighting and thousands of file cabinets.

These are the images that come to mind when many Americans think of government bureaucracy. A bureaucrat is someone who works in administrative capacity for the government. How important are bureaucrats and their government agencies in actually running the United States government? According to some, they are the real government — the ones behind the scenes who go to work when the politicians are enjoying the spotlight.

Max Weber, a German sociologist was one of the first people in modern times to think seriously about the importance of bureaucracy. The term actually comes from the French word “bureau,” a reference to the small desks that the king’s representatives set up in towns as they traveled across the country on king’s business. So bureaucracy literally means “government with a small desk.”

https://www.ushistory.org/gov/8.asp

Now on to the Iron Triangle…..

Iron Triangle Examples

The term “iron triangle” is a term used to describe the dynamics of policy-making between special interest groups, Congress and governmental agencies. The interrelationship between these three factions can create a self-sufficient (and sometimes corrupt) sub governmental situation in which American citizens’ best interests are ignored in favor of receiving special favors and regulation changes for passing particular legislation.

Other times, special interest groups (SIGs) like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) will lobby to have meaningful laws passed that protect a certain group of people. Let’s take a look at the good and the bad with the following iron triangle examples.

Special interest groups are a key element in the iron triangle because they can create a governmental situation in which their lobbyists have an undue influence on government.

Another corner of the iron triangle is Congress. Congress exchanges “friendly legislation” to interest groups as well as bureaucrats and governmental agencies in order to gain their support in elections.

Anyone that has studied Civics, you know that dying subject that few care about, they would understand what the “Triangle” represents.

The Iron Triangle

The Iron Triangle is responsible for the stalemate in Congress…if the legislation does not benefit them then they throw cash at select Congresspeople and bring any progress to a halt.

The Iron Triangle needs to be dismembered once and for all…never to return to hold the nation captive.

Just A Thought!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Drain The Swamp!

Of all the slogans and chants from the 2016 election that one sticks out in my mind……a new face and a new call for the Swamp to be drained’

As usual this is a subject/promise that I have watched closely and even wrote about it in 2019…..https://lobotero.com/2019/10/22/drain-the-swamp-drain-the-swamp/

Sadly Trump has not drained the Swamp he is just added to it and built one of his liking…..the impeachment process has brought out all the critters in Trump’s swamp

The defense’s opening statements of Trump’s impeachment trial. Justice, however, was not one of them. Power, absolutism, corruption and denial were present, but a quest for justice certainly wasn’t, not even within the narrow confines of these stunted proceedings. The process continues in less than twenty-four hours with the likelihood that the show will continue to produce more repetition, denial and obstruction, which is how I would describe business as usual in Washington on most days. The impeachment process has just consolidated it all and put it on television. One thing I have had confirmed during my viewing is that there are a lot of lousy and overpriced attorneys who only seem smart because their clients are not.

Saturday the 25th of January the morning newspapers provided commentary on the sideshows that tend to accompany political spectacles in DC. This included coverage of remarks by the impeachment spokesperson Adam “Don Quixote” Schiff in which he referred to GOP heads ending up on a pike if they opposed Trump. Two Republican senators–Collins of Maine and Murkowski of Alaska–objected to that characterization. I think their objections had to do with the GOP’s inability to comprehend metaphor. Although, if heads on a pike was still a thing, I can certainly think of a few Senators whose heads would be perfect there.

The Swamp That Trump Built

I have written about this topic many times….simply the administration will change but the Swamp remains.

And the Trump swamp gets deeper by the month….and with a new election on the horizon we should hear more about something that will NEVER happen.

Change NEVER comes……reform is the best that this system can do…..and reforms are easily overturned by the next megalomaniac that inhabits the White House.

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

We Have A “Spygate”

Look shiny keys….rattle….rattle….fetch!

We have had Watergate…Bridge-gate……and a wealth of other gates.  Anything the media thinks they can milk for some benefit they will label it a “-gate”…..that is whatever they can sensationalize.

One of the most recent was the Russia-gate fiasco…..you know what I mean…..but in case you are a dolt or completely ignorant…..

The hysteria over “Russia-gate” continues to grow – as President Trump’s enemies circle – but at its core there may be no there there while it risks pushing the world toward nuclear annihilation

There may be a turn-about-is-fair-play element to Democrats parsing the words of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and other Trump administration officials to hang them on possible “perjury” charges. After all, the Republicans made “lock her up” a popular chant citing Hillary Clinton’s arguably illegal use of a private email server as Secretary of State and her allegedly false claim under oath that her lawyers had hand-checked each of her 30,000 or so emails that were deleted as personal.

But there is a grave danger in playing partisan “gotcha” over U.S. relations with the world’s other major nuclear superpower. If, for instance, President Trump finds himself having to demonstrate how tough he can be on Russia — to save his political skin — he could easily make a miscalculation that could push the two countries into a war that could truly be the war to end all wars – along with ending human civilization. But Democrats, liberals and the mainstream news media seem to hate Trump so much they will take that risk.

Source: The Politics Behind ‘Russia-gate’ – Consortiumnews

And of course all this back and forth the Trump people are spreading around about that ominous sounding “Deep State” was a logical next step…a “SPYGATE”.

Everyone is suddenly talking about the Deep State – the configuration of spy agencies, career bureaucrats, and overseas spooks whose murky omnipresence has been brought to light by President Trump’s contention that he was “wiretapped” by his predecessor.

With his usual imprecision, Trump managed to confuse the issue by ascribing the surveillance to Barack Obama, and so naturally spokesmen for the former President had no trouble batting this charge away. But as a former Obama speechwriter put it:  “I’d be careful about reporting that Obama said there was no wiretapping. Statement just said that neither he nor the [White House] ordered it.”

Source: Spygate: America’s Political Police vs. Donald J. Trump by — Antiwar.com

This is all so silly.  It is a diversion from the horrible state of political affairs.

Give them, the media, a new “shiny object” to chase.

Closing Thought–13Mar17

Drain The Swamp!

I know all the Trumpy supporters are thrilled that he is “draining the swamp” in DC as he promised in his campaign rhetoric…..my problem is…..who represents this “swamp”?

Lobbyists?  Bureaucrats? Pundits?  Who are these mystical political players?

My problem with all this manure is that Trump is calling for many “experts” in the different fields to resign and he is replacing them with the very people that make up the “swamp”……

A Trump campaign aide who argues that Democrats committed “ethnic cleansing” in a plot to “liquidate” the white working class. A former reality show contestant whose study of societal collapse inspired him to invent a bow-and-arrow-cum-survivalist multi-tool. A pair of healthcare industry lobbyists. A lobbyist for defense contractors. An “evangelist” and lobbyist for Palantir, the Silicon Valley company with close ties to intelligence agencies. And a New Hampshire Trump supporter who has only recently graduated from high school.

These are some of the people the Trump administration has hired for positions across the federal government, according to documents received by ProPublica through public-records requests.

Source: Meet the Hundreds of Officials Trump Has Quietly Installed Across the Government – ProPublica

So my dear alt-Right brethren……Trump lied!

I am told that “He Won” and to get over it…..I shall do just that when the idiots admit that they were played like cheap drums.

He is not draining the swamp he is just adding new breed of alligator to the mud.

The slogans were amazing….the actions are as dim as a flickering night light.

Day has drawn to an end for me…..I will be off and will return tomorrow with more shiny objects for you to chase.  chuq

TO BBQ Or Not To BBQ

There is only so much silliness that I can read before I have to break down and call a moron a moron….this time it is the loud mouth Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas…..

He is all butt hurt because the Capital bureaucracy told him he cannot BBQ his “world famous” ribs (his claim not mine)……

Congress last week finally turned to something genuinely important, when Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas blistered the Architect of the Capitol, the caretaker of the government’s buildings on Capitol Hill, for interfering with the preparation of his barbecued ribs.

Getting in the way of authentic barbecue is a crime for which there is no forgiveness. It’s a crime almost as heinous as serving fraudulent barbecue, of which there is, alas, no shortage.

Mr. Gohmert represents a district in East Texas which should give him an understanding of the real thing. When the wind is up and blowing from the east, hickory smoke from Arkansas and Louisiana sometimes reaches Longview, Gladewater and even Gun Barrel City. The deeper a hungry man travels into Texas, however, the greater the risk of ordering barbecue and getting smoked beef, which can be delicious but is not, strictly speaking, barbecue. Only the noble pig, after spending 24 to 36 hours in the smoke house, is the stuff of authentic barbecue.

Source: Capitol bureaucracy interferes with Louie Gohmert’s barbecue ribs – Washington Times

He went running to Paul Ryan with the bottom lip sticking out to make the “bad man” let him burn some meat….

This is why our Congress is about as worthless as tits on a bull……they pick their fights over stupid shit that has NOTHING to do with governing this country.

Here is an idea…..since Congress only works about 150 days a year then let him burn his meat back home on his own time…

This is why this country is so screwed up….we elect screaming morons to run the country…..if he, Gohmert, wants to be a “chef” then go on TV or open a restaurant….if not then let pros do the work of burning meat and he stick to the art of governing….if he knows how (to me…that is debatable)…..

Mutual Defense League

When the US signs NATO agreements with other countries part of that agreement is that the protection of the country…in essence….”an attack on one is an attack on all”……so if Russia out-right attacks one of the countries within the alliance then it is the duty of the US to come to their defense…….

Syria has a similar agreement it signed with Russia and quite possibly Iran…..Russia will come to Syria’s defense if they are attacked……

Pretty much cut and dry sort of agreements, right?

I ask these questions because of something that was issued by the State Dept……..

Described as the “dissent channel cable,” the document appears to mirror the CIA’s own narrative, which is that in attacking ISIS the US is fighting the wrong war in Syria, and instead demands that the US shift focus entirely to militarily imposing regime change on the Syrian government.

Though the State Department document is still secret, it appears to simply echo the CIA’s supposition that ISIS can’t be defeated while Syria has a “weak” government, and that therefore destroying what’s left of Syria’s government might conceivably help.

If you need to read a more detailed account of this situation……

More than 50 State Department diplomats have signed an internal memo sharply critical of the Obama administration’s policy in Syria, urging the United States to carry out military strikes against the government of President Bashar al-Assad to stop its persistent violations of a cease-fire in the country’s five-year-old civil war.

The memo, a draft of which was provided to The New York Times by a State Department official, says American policy has been “overwhelmed” by the unrelenting violence in Syria. It calls for “a judicious use of stand-off and air weapons, which would undergird and drive a more focused and hard-nosed U.S.-led diplomatic process.”

Source: 51 U.S. Diplomats Urge Strikes Against Assad in Syria – The New York Times

This may not be a big deal for you….but maybe you should think about the ramifications of such an attack.

Seriously?  Is this just chest thumping or are these morons high?

This is what you get when neocons can keep their jobs?

Terrorism: Is Bureaucracy The Answer?

There is so much being written right now about who did what and why they did it…….so I will leave that for another day….

The recent attacks in Brussels will probably have wide ranging implications….especially for travelers.  We already know that the naysayers have come out of the cesspool to blame everyone for the despicable acts of a few slimy toads……

But let’s talk about if you will be traveling any time soon.

Security will become tighter and will lead to many other problems….I fear.

Take JFK as an example…..

All of them have something to prove and in the end they prove very little…..each wants to be the “hero”……and in the end nothing is secure.

You see the problem is that since 9/11 there has been a web of agencies that seem to get in each others way and in the end very little is done to make things secure….but don’t take my word for it……

Travelers passing through New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport this week witnessed a show of force following the Brussels airport attack: U.S. Army soldiers in khaki camouflage bearing assault rifles, police officers in black bullet-proof vests and private security guards directing traffic in neon-yellow vests.

Source: Web of agencies at U.S. airports could hinder security overhauls | Reuters

Okay, what have we learned from the most recent attack?

The vicious attack on the Brussels airport and metro underscores the futility of focusing on the Syrian “Caliphate” as the epicenter of terrorism: as I’ve been saying in this space since 2001, the snake has no head. Both al-Qaeda and now ISIS are protean entities with a vast geographical spread, and what the Brussels attack […]

Source: Lessons of Brussels – Antiwar.com Original by — Antiwar.com

I sorry to inform my readers but the acts of terrorism will not go away with the defeat of ISIS or AQ…..

Why Bureaucracy?

College of Political Knowledge

Subject:  Political Theory/Political Administration

This is a continuation of a discussion that one of my most avid readers, Quin of Quintessential Havoc (go to blogroll to get to his site)……we have discussed the evils of the heavy bureaucracy that is prevalent in democracies…..but I want to talk about the bureaucracy on the local or state level this time…..

I will talk about my state…Mississippi……(thanx for all the sympathy cards)……..the state has 82 counties….and in some cases the county seats are less than 25 miles apart….the counties were created around land ownership, in most cases or were created in the days of the horse and buggy as the only mode of transportation….those days are gone and so are the days of the necessity for so many different jurisdictions…..

The capital city of Jackson and its suburbs are located in 3 counties…..the Coast, which is about 26 miles long, has three repeated county seats…..Hattiesburg, locate between Coast and the Capital, and its suburbs cover 2 counties, maybe three……my point is, if the state is truly wanting to saving money it is time for some realistic consolidation…..eliminate all the duplication….K.I.S.S. and consolidation is the simplest solution…..

All that is a worthless waste of resources just to keep the “good ol boy” system in place….states are struggling to save money and balance their budgets and still offer the services that the people need….but instead of looking at reality they attempt all sorts of revenue generating schemes that in the long run harm the people that they say they are trying to help…..

Elected officials need to cease all this bantering and pseudo-fixes to the administration of government and look for real solutions….no matter if they are popular or not……eventually a real statesman will appear and do what is necessary….until then…..budgets will be crap and the people will suffer while the politicians keep lying and cheating the people out of their future…….sorry to be a downer……but we need to face reality and stop sticking our heads in the sane and exposing our butts to the politicians….they WILL take advantage……

Another good plan for the people’s money…..where I live the local courthouse decided to build a new parking garage….they tore up an existing parking lot and when the garage was built they gain about 3 new parking spaces…..but it was imperative that it be built…….the old parking lot was perfectly good but they had to have a garage and the couple extra parking spots cost about $1 million each…..not bad if you are a contractor, huh?  God I love this stuff!

Side Note:

One appointment in a memo announcing White House staffing changes sounds like something from a future Harvard Kennedy School case study of what went wrong: Emmett Beliveau was appointed Deputy Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff to the Chief of Staff.  God, I love this stuff…it just keeps getting better and better……

Does Regulation Really Work?

Inkwell Institute

Federal Budget/Deficit Series

There is a big debate in Washington and among the radical Left and Right on whether financial regulation will work or not…..and a question that deserves an answer….something we will not get from the pundits and their minions…..

This, of course, is just my opinion….but I think it is a pretty good answer, but then I am biased…..

It is obvious that left to their own devices corporations will NOT do the right thing or control and regulate themselves…..look at Wall Street…..look at the oil spill….look at the health industry….look at….oh well you get my point I believe…..

I know…I know there are those that do not like the direction that our government size is going….and I agree, somewhat, to what is being said….but  (there is always a but)…..something has got to be done…..if not then these types of disasters will continue on a rapidly expanding pace…..

Paul Krugman made some intersting points in his blog on regulations…..

Well, here’s the thing: regulation demonstrably does work where tort law doesn’t. Consider the environmental issue: in reality, the perpetrators of oil spills never pay most of the cost; but in reality, environmental regulation has led to much cleaner air and water. (Look up the history of Los Angeles smog or the fate of Lake Erie if you don’t believe me.)

So why does regulation work? If polluters can buy off the system ex post, after a disaster, why don’t they manage to totally corrupt regulation ex ante? There’s a lot to say about that, and I’m sure there’s a literature I haven’t read. But one thing we tend to forget in this age of Reagan is the importance and virtues of a dedicated bureaucracy: when you have professional government agencies with a job to do, and treat them with respect, that job often gets done.

While Krugman is speaking mostly of the oil spill and regulation….it can be said that federal regulation does work for the areas that I have mentioned above……

While I agree with Krugman on the main point, I also see where regulation can be compromised by the influx of massive amounts of cash to the regulators from the businesses being regulated.

There is the conundrum of regulation……Greed can neutralize much….

Oil Spill Conundrum

From the VOMITORIUM

The oil spill in the Gulf is getting expensive and BP has set about making their PR campaign pay off…..they have bought all the domain names that they could so that when the word “ol spill” was Googled the first thing the person sees is the PR tape from BP…everytrhing looks good…all rainbows and puppies….

I have heard the BP CEO and many many political types saw that “we must make sure that this NEVER happens again”…….and how would that be accomplished?  Do you let the industry police itself?  Well that did not work out so good with this spill we are fighting now, huh?  Then that means the government would have to step in a send investigators to EVERY rig to make sure that safety equipment is in proper working condition…..right?  In a time when everyone is screaming about how large the government has become and now you want to grow the bureaucracy that oversees the drilling for oil by some 200+% to be sure that this type of thing NEVER happens again.  In essence this would grow the size of government considerably…are you people smoking crack?

So the answers are either trust a oil giant like BP to police themselves or grow the government even more than now…..is that about it?

I have heard many politicians in Washington say the the government is not doing enough on the spill……these a/holes are the ones that have been cutting the budget of the EPA for decades and now they want a bare bones organization to have the quick fix….do you NOW see just how moronic this whole damn system has become?

As usual I have an idea…..I know I always have a better idea…..well better in my mind anyway….But first the new news out of the Obama Admin……

The Obama administration is asking federal agencies to identify how to trim 5 percent of their budgets, a top official will say Tuesday.

Peter Orszag, the director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), said the administration has directed non-security agencies to name ways in which they could reduce spending, primarily by axing poorly performing discretionary programs.

See it is just not the GOP that is moronic!  If this was before the spill I would bet that the EPA response program would be part of this cut because it has NOT been needed in years…..

Like I said…there is a solution to this ever happening again….at least to my way of thinking, that is….

My answer is really simple, but it will piss off those who work bringing in the oil for our massive addiction……if you want to make sure that another spill does not spoil our environment and you want smaller government then the ONLY answer is…….OUTLAW OFFSHORE DRILLING!

There would be NO chance of a blowout like we are dealing with now and you would NOT need the governmental branch that would oversee such operations…..This would make CERTAIN of NO more underwater oil spills and would shrink the size of the Federal government…..it would be win-win for both sides of the aisle….

SEE!  you can have your cake and eat it too!