Tag: Lobbyists

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! Drain The Swamp!

Closing Thought–22Oct19

The chant rang out and the peasants danced.

One of Donald Trump’s promises in the 2016 campaign and yet another promise broken…..

Last year when Trump was asked about that damn swamp….he sai

 

President Trump on Thursday asserted that his administration is following through on his pledge to “drain the swamp.”

“From the day I took the oath of office, I’ve been fighting to drain the swamp, and sometimes it may not look like it, but believe me, we are draining the swamp,” Trump said during remarks at the White House about tax reform. 

“And there are a lot of unhappy people,” he continued. “You can see that every day. All you have to do is turn on the news. Every time you see me hit, you know that I’m draining the swamp. And people don’t like it.”

Trump repeatedly vowed during the 2016 campaign and since taking office that he would “drain the swamp” and rid Washington, D.C., of lifelong political insiders and ethical quandaries.

(thehill.com)

Now after a couple of years the count has made the news…..

Trump’s first term, the liberal group American Bridge 21st Century has supplied the Washington Post with a list of lobbyists on Team Trump, and it’s formidable:

Data provided to The Post … identifies over 350 individuals who’ve worked as lobbyists who currently work in the administration, have worked in it or have been nominated to serve in Trump’s administration. Cumulatively, they’ve represented more than 2,800 companies at one point or another, according to lobbying registration documents. Nearly 200 of them now served or have been nominated to serve in divisions of government that they once lobbied.

Most of these people are not as famous (or infamous) as, say, the former oil industry shill and coal lobbyist who have serially run the Environmental Protection Agency under Trump. But 350 ex-lobbyists represent a lot of special interests. And their greatest concentration, the Post notes, is in the Executive Office of the President, where 47 ex-lobbyists toil to set policy for the entire federal government.

http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/03/350-lobbyists-swimming-in-trumps-swamp.html

That was in 2018…and more recently another tally of the Swamp in thew Trump White House..

…his administration has hired a lobbyist for every 14 political appointments made, welcoming a total of 281 lobbyists on board, a ProPublica and Columbia Journalism Investigations analysis shows.

With a combination of weakened rules and loose enforcement easing the transition to government and back to K Street, Trump’s swamp is anything but drained. The number of lobbyists who have served in government jobs is four times more than the Obama administration had six years into office. And former lobbyists serving Trump are often involved in regulating the industries they worked for.

https://www.propublica.org/article/we-found-a-staggering-281-lobbyists-whove-worked-in-the-trump-administration

Did you understand the statement?  The Trump admin has hired one lobbysist for every 14 appointees ……think about that!

That drain promised is not even a trickle….another campaign promise to the American people broken.

How many promises need to be broken before his base realizes he is an outright LIAR?  That he is only looking out for himself….not the country.

I read, I Wrote, You Know

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

A Few Thoughts

These are a couple of stories that I came across and marked for a possible post….they never made it that far…..events moved quickly and made them a moot point…..

First thought is the ever popular NRA…popular with the GOP who gets a regular paycheck from the lobbying group……

It appears as if the NRA knew they were being played by the Russian agent…..

Top officials at the National Rifle Association knew Russians were using their ties to the gun rights group to try to bolster their status with lawmakers or the winner of the 2016 presidential election, a new report from Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee shows.

In 2015, Russian national Maria Butina, who last year pleaded guilty to conspiracy as an unregistered foreign agent, tapped her political operative boyfriend Paul Erickson to help her convince a top NRA official to come to Moscow, according to the committee report made public Friday.
“Russia believes that high level contacts with the NRA might be the BEST means of neutral introduction to either the next American President OR to a meaningful re-set in relations with the Congress under a (God forbid) President Clinton,” Erickson, a GOP political operative wrote to Peter Brownell, the chief executive of a firearm accessories company and, at the time, the incoming president of the NRA. “This simple good will trip would have enormous diplomatic consequences for a future U.S. / Russia bilateral relationship to the world.”
 
Second the whole mash up with the Ukraine phone call is what set the whole inquiry in motion…..SecState Pompeo has babbled that he had not seen the complaint and knows nothing about the phone call that started this whole thing….I appears that Pompeo is lying (go figure)…….
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was one of the people listening in on President Trump’s call to Ukraine’s president in July—the call that prompted the House to begin an impeachment inquiry. A senior State Department official confirmed Pompeo’s involvement on Monday, the Wall Street Journal reports. Pompeo had said that he opposed releasing the transcript of Trump’s conversation with President Volodymy Zelensky. He has since said the decision is up to the White House.
 
Pompeo had said he hadn’t read the whistleblower complaint in full about the phone call, and not answered specific questions about the conversation. As far as he knew, Pompeo said, per CNN, State Department officials had acted properly. Three House committees have issued subpoenas to Pompeo for documents related to the inquiry. He faces a deadline of Friday to turn them over
Pompeo has stated that ……
the House panels conducting the impeachment inquiry requested that five current and former State Department officials appear this week and next for depositions. On Tuesday, Mike Pompeo made clear that won’t happen, the Washington Post reports. The secretary of state sent a letter to House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel (Pompeo posted the letter in full on Twitter) outlining a number of “serious substantive and procedural deficiencies” in the request, which he called nothing more than “an attempt to intimidate, bully, and treat improperly, the distinguished professionals of the Department of State.” He faulted the committee for not providing the five enough time to prepare and said the panels are trying to block State Department counsel from coming with them.
 
He also noted the five weren’t issued subpoenas, and “we are not aware of any other authority by which the committee could compel appearance at a depositions”; therefore, the scheduled depositions “could only be read as a request for a voluntary appearance.” The officials requested have all somehow been involved in US-Ukraine relations: Marie Yovanovitch, former ambassador to Ukraine; Kurt Volker, former special envoy to Ukraine; Deputy Assistant Secretary George Kent; US ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland; and State Department Counselor T. Ulrich Brechbuhl. Later Tuesday, CNN reports, the chairmen of the three committees requesting the depositions issued a statement warning Pompeo that “any effort to intimidate witnesses or prevent them from talking with Congress … is illegal.” The AP reports that Volker, who resigned last week, has agreed to talk to the committees behind closed doors this week and Yovanovitch will appear Oct. 11
No problem…either they answer questions or they are in contempt and should be arrested immediately.
 
Pompeo will say whatever Trump trlls him to say……Im have NO use for people like that…….suck ass cheese eaters…..
A little more than a week after saying he had just been handed “a report about a IC whistle-blower complaint, none of which I’ve seen,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo confirmed Wednesday that he was on the July 25 phone call between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that prompted the complaint and is now the subject of an impeachment inquiry. “I was on the call,” Pompeo said from Rome, adding the US policy had been about helping rid Ukraine of corruption, per the New York Times. “We will continue to try to drive those set of outcomes,” he said when asked if he had any concerns about the call, per CNN.
 
Pompeo then elaborated on a Tuesday letter in which he accused Democrats of attempting to intimidate officials asked to appear for depositions. “They contacted State Department employees directly, told them not to contact legal counsel at the State Department,” he said, claiming the demands “deeply violate fundamental principles of separation of powers.” Late Tuesday, however, the chairmen of three House committees leading the impeachment inquiry said Pompeo “appears to have an obvious conflict of interest” and “should immediately cease intimidating Department witnesses in order to protect himself and the president,” per Bloomberg and the Hill.
Nothing about the DC Triumvirate, Trump, Barr, Pompeo is about what is best for the country….it is all about protecting a pertson…not the country or the Constitution.
 
The media is acting all butt hurt that Pompeo is lying to them……in reality Pompeo has been a lying arrogant Neocon since his days in the Congress…..to think that he has changed because he has a position of authority is just STUPID!
 
According to your president there is a “coup”….but then there has been such since he walked into office…..
 
Not for the first time, President Trump is falsely claiming a coup against him. “As I learn more and more each day, I am coming to the conclusion that what is taking place is not an impeachment, it is a COUP,” the president tweeted late Tuesday. Trump’s trade adviser Peter Navarro had suggested the same hours earlier, telling Fox Business that the impeachment inquiry was “nothing less than an attempted coup d’état,” reports the Hill.
 
Trump also claimed a failed coup in April, reports USA Today. “They tried for a coup, it didn’t work out so well,” he said of the Mueller report at the NRA’s annual meeting. Trump is likely to expand on his defense at a Wednesday press conference. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff will jointly hold one of their own, per NBC News, while the State Department’s inspector general will brief congressional committees on documents related to the Ukraine scandal.
As usual the president uses words that he has NO earthly idea what they mean……
 
Thought process recorded.
 
“I Read, I Wrote and now You Know!”
 
“Lego Ergo Scribo”

Warren On The Rise

Biden has been the Dem front runner for the 2020 nomination but in the last week or so Warren has been gaining on Uncle Joe…..and in a new poll in Iowa she has zipped past Biden….

There is a new top dog in Iowa polling, with Sen. Elizabeth Warren having put the nation’s former No. 2 politician Joe Biden firmly into the No. 2 spot: She now leads him 22% to 20%, marking the first time the former vice president has trailed in the Des Moines Register/CNN/Mediacom Iowa Poll, CNN reports. That’s up seven percentage points for Warren and down three for Biden. Bernie Sanders trails at 11%, but is the only other candidate in double digits; the Vermont senator, however, has dropped five percentage points since the last poll in June

So with the rise in the polls she will be lots of scrutiny that may have been missed while she was an also ran…..

So let me begin this scrutiny……

Warren has said she wants lobbyists out of the governing process…..or does she?

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren hired a Planned Parenthood lobbyist to a key role in her presidential campaign Tuesday, just one day after Warren announced a plan that would “end lobbying as we know it.”

Warren unveiled an anti-corruption plan Monday that would introduce a “cooling off” period for lobbyists before they can serve in government roles and would prohibit active lobbyists from donating to political campaigns, a practice Warren called “legalized bribery.”

“The fundamental promise of our democracy is that every voice matters,” Warren’s plan states. “But when lobbyists and big corporations can buy influence from politicians, that promise is broken. The first thing to do to fix it is to end lobbying as we know it.”

The next day, Kimberly Diaz Scott, who registered as a lobbyist for the Florida Alliance of Planned Parenthood Affiliates as recently as January 2019, announced that she was leaving the organization to head up Warren’s campaign in Florida.

Read the original article.

A perfect example of how Democrats lying and deceive the voter….and yet still can find people that will vote for liars….why?

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

VOTE!

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

Speaking The Truth!

Personally I want representatives to speak the truth….but that is impossible in some cases in DC…..and thwe biggest one is criticism of AIPAC as Rep. Omar has learned….

Omar singled out AIPAC, one of the most influential lobbying groups in Washington, as the source of those donations.

Omar’s comments touched upon a long-running, and particularly ugly, thread of the anti-Semitic movement — that Jewish money fuels backing for Israel in the United States and elsewhere. A freshman Democrat, Max Rose of New York, said, “Congresswoman Omar’s statements are deeply hurtful to Jews, including myself.”

And the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee is a non-profit that doesn’t donate directly to candidates. AIPAC, however, does relentlessly push a pro-Israeli message on Capitol Hill and inside the executive branch, and its members donate to pro-Israel lawmakers and candidates while seeking to defeat those it considers a threat to U.S.-Israeli relations.

(Politico)

And then the mental midget Kevin McCarthy had to put his babble into the discussion…

Omar has come under fire from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and other Republicans over her comments criticizing Israel, both remarks made since her election to Congress and long before she even began her political career.

McCarthy and other Republicans have pressed Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) and top Democrats to “take action” against Omar and Tlaib, saying he would do so if the GOP were the majority party.

McCarthy added: “Anti-Semitic tropes have no place in the halls of Congress. It is dangerous for Democrat leadership to stay silent on this reckless language.”

He, slow McCarthy,  made my point for me….does he know what antisemitism actual is?  Apparently NOT!  And they trust this slug to count votes…..(insert raucous laughter)

Speaking truth is not antisemitism!

Does AIPAC spend a lot of money on Congress?  You bet your ass it does!

Please someone call these moron d/bags out on the lies they spread!

I pray these brave women continue to speak out and putting these old white a/holes in their place……Pelosi needs to grow a pair and step up to these women’s defense….and NOW!

After I wrote this draft news has come that she had issued an apology…..

Omar did tweet a statemement Monday saying, among other things, “I unequivocally apologize,” but she added that she stands behind her criticism of “the problematic role of lobbyists in our politics,” including AIPAC.

She did what the cowards of the DNC wanted….so it is DONE!

The mash up was nothing but a diversion…..but the truth that will not be said……the Dems are bought!

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/sorry-democrats-your-nra-is-spelled-aipac_us_59d62c62e4b0666ad0c3cb12

The MSM has shown exactly who controls their content especially on this issue.

Why did the media not fact check her statement for accuracy?

I know why!

It would be too embarrassing when the truth came out…..that is why!

But let me introduce you to the Israeli Lobbying scheme…..

https://ifamericaknew.org/us_ints/introlobby.html

Electronic Intifada obtained and published the four-part series, but it did so during the week of the midterm elections, and the documentary did not get a lot of attention then.

In it, leaders of the pro-Israel lobby speak openly about how they use money to influence the political process, in ways so blunt that if the comments were made by critics, they’d be charged with anti-Semitism.

https://theintercept.com/2019/02/11/ilhan-omar-israel-lobby-documentary/

Further Reading:

https://splinternews.com/everyone-is-dumb-1832517641

Business As Usual

The US is giving the Saudis as much cover as it can without being too overt…..the Saudis story changes daily kinda like the story about their airstrike on a school bus full of children…..Trump sends in the uber Neocon, Pompeo, to get to the bottom of the Khashoggi affair…..that is a laugh…..Pompeo went before the cameras in KSA smiling like a Chesshire (?) Cat…..

Mike Pompeo continues to urge patience with the Jamal Khashoggi case: The US secretary of state says he has advised the White House to give Saudi Arabia “a few more days” to complete its investigation into the journalist’s disappearance. At that point, “we can make decisions about how or if the United States should respond to the incident,” Pompeo told reporters Thursday. “There a lot of stories out there,” and “we just are going to allow the process to move forward, allow the facts to unfold.” But after meeting with Pompeo and President Trump to discuss Pompeo’s visit to Saudi Arabia and Turkey earlier this week, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced Thursday he is pulling out of a high-profile investor conference he had planned to attend in Saudi Arabia next week. No other government officials will attend in his place, CNN reports.

17 days after the murder and they still need more time to “investigate” (that is code for cover-up)……

Of course Our Dear Supreme Leader made it a point to tell the media that he has NO financial projects in Saudi Arabia…..that may be true but what about the Saudis in the US?

Trump & Saudi Business: •1991: Sold yacht to Saudi Prince •2001: Sold 45th floor of Trump World Tower to Saudis •Jun 2015: I love the Saudis…many in Trump Tower •Aug 2015: “They buy apartments from me…Spend $40M-$50M” •2017: Saudi lobbyists spent $270K at Trump DC hotel…..(FOX News Research)

Plus the day that Pompeo goes to KSA and a hundred million bucks is sent to the US……

When US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo flew into Riyadh to discuss the disappearance and likely death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Saudi Arabia transferred $100m to the State Department for US efforts against the Islamic State (IS) group, the New York Times reported late Tuesday.

While the funding was approved earlier in the summer, critics have viewed the timing of the transfer payment with suspicion.

“The timing of this is no coincidence,” a US official told the New York Times.

The US State Department envoy for the anti-IS coalition said in a statement on Wednesday that they “expected the contribution to be finalized in the fall time frame”.

https://theantimedia.com/saudi-arabia-transfers-100-million/

Seriously?  Or is that a bribe payment?

But I believe the Saudis have their lie down to something that Our Dear Supreme Leader can use….after all the Saudis are his best customers in his hotels and in his properties that he needs bailing out……

We now have the lie of lies……

Amid a massive wave of international condemnation, Saudi Arabia might be ready to publicly blame somebody for the apparent killing of Jamal Khashoggi—and it isn’t Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Instead, sources tell the New York Times, Saudi officials are preparing to point the finger at Maj. Gen Ahmed al-Assiri, an intelligence official who serves as an adviser to the prince. The sources say the Saudis plan to claim that Assiri received instructions from the prince to capture Khashoggi for interrogation and the journalist ended up dead after Assiri either misunderstood or exceeded his orders. The Times notes, however, that this explanation would involve admitting that the prince “ordered an operation to abduct a resident of the United States.”

This steaming pile of bovine fecal matter will satisfy Trump but then a simpleton like him is easy to fool……just massage his ego and all will be fine….no matter the crime committed.

They will get away with it!

And now Alt-Right sites are tying Khashoggi to the Muslim Brotherhood among others…..FOX trying to demonize a  murdered journalist……this man went to the Saudi Consulate and was then tortured and killed and he left in pieces in a bag and he IS the bad guy in all this.

It is the lying bastards like these that make me despise the Right…well the Right that is holding Trump’s nuts for him.  These are pathetic assholes!

Plus they will allow the murdering toads in Saudi Arabia get away with torture and murder……this is the government of Our Dear Supreme Leader, Trump the Tool!

Closing Thought–05Apr17

Exploit those veterans!

American veterans have to put up with a lot of crap….from delayed medical to educational issues to homelessness….but in a recent news article I read where they were being exploited by none other than America’s butt buddy, Saudi Arabia.

The DOJ has filed a complaint against the actions of the Saudis during an election…..

A group of 9/11 families and survivors has filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice, suggesting broad misconduct in a lobbying campaign the firm has conducted on behalf of Saudi Arabia.

According to the 17-page complaint, individuals associated with Qorvis MSLGroup violated several provisions of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) as they worked to weaken a law that cleared the way for 9/11 families and victims to sue the kingdom for its alleged role in the September 11 attacks.

The accusations, leveled by 9/11 Victims’ Families and Survivors United for Justice Against Terrorism, center on a campaign in which lobbyists have flown large groups of U.S. military veterans to Washington to oppose the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA)—without informing those veterans that Saudi Arabia was sponsoring and orchestrating their activities.

Source: DOJ Complaint Filed Over Saudi Lobbying Campaign That Exploited Military Veterans | 28Pages.org

I have said that troops are used like tools and now so are the veterans that gave so much for their country.

Have a good day my friends….tomorrow will be another such day…..chuq

The Kagans, It’s A Family Affair

Washington is a town of movers and shakers…..some move in the oil circle….others move in the financial side of life…..and then there are the Kagans…..a family ass deep in war.

Their candidate of choice in the last election was Clinton, Hillary, they were invested in her hubby too when he ran the world.  Once their candidate was handed her ass they slinked off into the shadows…..and after awhile theyt are back and you can bet that war will soon raise its ugly face yet again.

The neocon royalty Kagans are counting on Democrats and liberals to be the foot soldiers in the new neocon campaign to push Republicans and President Trump into more “regime change” wars,

The Kagan family, America’s neoconservative aristocracy, has reemerged having recovered from the letdown over not gaining its expected influence from the election of Hillary Clinton and from its loss of official power at the start of the Trump presidency.

Back pontificating on prominent op-ed pages, the Family Kagan now is pushing for an expanded U.S. military invasion of Syria and baiting Republicans for not joining more enthusiastically in the anti-Russian witch hunt over Moscow’s alleged help in electing Donald Trump.

Source: The Kagans Are Back; Wars to Follow – Consortiumnews

The roulette wheel is turning….where will it stop…..who gets the lucky roll?

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

Trump’s First 100 Days–Redux

Like I have said several times….there are some parts of the Trump agenda that I can relate to……for instance the below graphic……..

If this is his agenda then I applaud him in his efforts……..at least in those first 100 days…..

It is too early to say that I will support this president….but this would be a good start….it might be good to restore the public’s faith in the institution of government…..there are qualified people that are not lobbyists…..it will depend what scale is used to judge the person…..my guess is that a rational independent voice will not be welcome in this new administration.

Too much hearsay right now…..I will wait and see if this part of his promise rings true…..and with what it is replaced.