Tag: Governmental Interference

Trump In 2024

I know that the clown show we call Ukraine is on everybody’s mind…..but…..

Contrary to popular belief it is not too early to start thinking about the possibility of a trump win in November .

I believe that Trump, Donald the Orange, is just a dictator waiting to happen and the voter could present him with that opportunity.

Just to be clear….he does not like oversight of his station….in fact he wants to expand his control over aspects of our government.

The New York Times is out with a story sure to simultaneously delight the supporters of former President Trump and strike fear into his critics. The lengthy piece, based on his campaign’s public proposals and interviews with insiders, lays out how Trump plans to dramatically increase the power of the presidency should he be elected to a second term. The goal is to “alter the balance of power by increasing the president’s authority over every part of the federal government that now operates, by either law or tradition, with any measure of independence from political interference by the White House,” write Maggie Haberman, Jonathan Swan, and Charlie Savage. For example:

  • Independent agencies such as the FCC and the FTC would operate under the president’s control.
  • Presidents would be able to refuse to spend money authorized by Congress on programs they don’t like—the practice is called “impounding” funds, and lawmakers banned it under Richard Nixon.
  • Tens of thousands of civil servants would lose their job protection, making it easier for a president to fire them.

“What we’re trying to do is identify the pockets of independence and seize them,” explains Trump ally Russell Vought, who ran the Office of Management and Budget under Trump. John Kelly, one of Trump’s former chief of staffs, predicts a term of chaos should Trump be re-elected. “It would be a nonstop gunfight with the Congress and the courts.” Read the full story, which digs into the thinking behind “unitary executive theory” and its opposition to traditional checks and balances

Then there is the possibility of a trump victory because of one action by an outside group….

Geoffrey Skelley, a senior elections analyst at FiveThirtyEight, described on Thursday, July 13, how the Democrats are fretting about the possibility of a third-party candidate eating into President Joe Biden’s support in the 2024 presidential race.

Skelley described how a plan by the “No Labels” organization to field a centrist presidential ticket to run against tickets that will no doubt reflect the extremes of both the Republican and the Democratic Party could hurt Biden more than it would Trump, and argued that Cornel West’s bid for the Green Party nomination could impact Biden and the Democrats further.

Skelley has the data to prove it, too.

Surveys conducted since late May – within the last handful of weeks – have repeatedly shown that President Joe Biden could win against former President Donald Trump in a head-to-head match in 2024. When a No Labels or Green Party ticket is thrown into the mix, however, the race becomes much more competitive, and Trump even leads against Biden in a number of those polls.

Donald Trump Could Win in 2024 If One Thing Happens

I will have more to say on this prediction a little later.

Just do not get me started on the whole ‘centrist’ or ‘independent’ thing just yet.

Any thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Remember The ‘Nanny State’?

Some may not be old enough to remember the slang used to describe a Democratic agenda…the years in the 80s and 90s was when it was most used.

Conservatives (AKA GOP) criticized the agenda of environmental and financial regulations, as well as most social programs as a form of central planning and that would be Soviet style government.

But where did the term ‘Nanny State’ come with….surely American conservatives were not clever enough to come up with this on their own….

Well they did not….

It is of UK origin that conveys a view that a government or its policies are overprotective or interfering unduly with personal choice.

Basically it means a government that makes decisions for people that they might otherwise make for themselves, esp those relating to private and personal behavior.

Fast forward until today…..(sound of time speeding by)….

Look closely at the agenda of the modern American GOP….These ‘people’ are experts at such political slurs…..

Political slurs and simplistic slogans are damaging democratic discourse and policy making. In place of open and clear debate, we see unfounded assertions, innuendo, and smears. Influential—and often wealthy—elites (they are this, though pretend otherwise) have sold a myth that they stand against the self-serving control of liberal intellectualism. These elites shun reasoned argument (we’ve had enough of experts…). They close down reasoned discussion of social and political values. And claiming to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with persons who are disaffected, disenchanted, and disenfranchised, their rhetoric masks myriad entrenched commercial and political interests.

The rhetorical technique of crying “nanny state” is an example of such crushing of sensible public discussion.

(bmj.com)

Sad that jingoism and slurs are the way of policy debate these days….few to no actual discussion on policies occurs anymore just the slurs  and outright lies.

Will the Americans ever wake up to their plight under the watchful eye of backstabbing politicos?

This country will continue to suffer and the innuendoes will continue to fly….but we have a chance to change the direction of this country, as we do every 4 years, sadly I do not see any change coming….we will continue to hate and lie, especially to ourselves.

The GOP is trying to control individual choices, education, who can vote and where….if that does not sound like a ‘nanny’ state then I do not know what does.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Where’s The Outrage?

Let’s step back from Ukraine for awhile and take up another issue that has lost in the media……

Remember when it was revealed that the NSA was collected mega data on US citizens?

There was endless rants and posts about the affront to our rights to privacy…..and yet the newest report of a massive data collection of US citizens is gone by with few writing of the outrage…..

The Central Intelligence Agency has been collecting American’s private data without any oversight or even the minimal legal safeguards that apply to the NSA and FBI, an unconstitutional affront to our civil liberties.

According to a declassified report released yesterday by the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB), the CIA’s surveillance program is reminiscent of the mass surveillance programs conducted by the NSA, though the details released thus far paint a disturbing picture of potential wide-scale violations of people’s privacy. To start, the CIA program has apparently been conducted outside the statutory reforms and oversight of the intelligence community instituted after revelations by Edward Snowden in 2013. The newly declassified CIA data collection program is carried out in conjunction with Executive Order 12333 and is therefore subject to even less oversight than the woefully under-supervised NSA surveillance programs subject to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

The whos, whats, whys, and hows of this semi-disclosed CIA program are still unknown, and the public deserves the right to know exactly what damage has been done. Senators Ron Wyden and Martin Heinrich are already pressing for the release of even more information. In a partially-redacted letter sent to the Director of National Intelligence and the CIA Director on April 13, 2021, the senators have called for the public release of the full report about the CIA’s surveillance, which remains classified. The senators’ letter also demands answers about how the agency collects the data, what data is being collected, and the rules governing its storage and retention.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/02/we-need-answers-about-cias-mass-surveillance

Once again the American people show a disturbing indifference to the world around them….as long as their little pathetic sphere is blue skies and unicorns then they could care damn less at the loss of rights.

Collectively the American people could be filed away in the ‘Can’t Fix Stupid’ collection.

Turn The Page!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Murder Of The Middle Class

There is a slow and torturous murder being inflicted on the Middle Class in this country.

Since the last half of the 20th century the Middle Class has been struggling to maintain the position and the life that they have been enjoying since the invention of the Middle Class….and sadly it is a losing battle.

Corporations have been chipping away at the Middle Class status with the help of the government….and it began in earnest with the election of Reagan in 1980.

Forty years ago, on August 5, 1981, President Ronald Reagan fired 11,345 striking air traffic controllers and barred them from ever working again for the federal government. By October of that year, the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization, or PATCO, the union that had called the strike, had been decertified and lay in ruins. The careers of most of the individual strikers were similarly dead: While Bill Clinton lifted Reagan’s ban on strikers in 1993, fewer than 10 percent were ever rehired by the Federal Aviation Administration.

PATCO was dominated by Vietnam War-era veterans who’d learned air traffic control in the military and were one of a vanishingly small number of unions to endorse Reagan in 1980, thereby scoring one of the greatest own goals in political history. It’s easy to imagine strikers expressing the same sentiments as a Trump voter who famously lamented, “I thought he was going to do good things. He’s not hurting the people he needs to be hurting.”

https://theintercept.com/2021/08/06/middle-class-reagan-patco-strike/

I have written many posts on the death of the Middle Class…..

What’s Killing the American Middle Class?

Who Or What Killed The Middle Class?

The American middle class is dying.

In 2015, it dipped below 50% of the population for the first time since data collection started on the issue. It’s now an official minority group.

Meanwhile, nearly half of Americans don’t have enough money to cover a surprise $400 expense. Many are living paycheck to paycheck, with little to no cushion. And US homes are less affordable than they’ve been in decades—possibly ever.

I’ll tell you why this is happening and how to secure your spot among the “haves” in a moment. But first, let’s take a look at the America that was.

The Long Death of America’s Middle Class

Centrism and corporate control of the government is killing the Middle class….not long from now there will be little left of what use to be the jewel of the American economy…..today it is all about the shareholders and cash….the workers mean NOTHING.

I do not see a reversal of this trend….since cash drives the politics in this country it will only get worse.

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”