Nice thread with some interesting arguments and info.
Nobody here owes me an apology for anything, but being a conceited gay guy I involuntarily love the attention and even compliments! (Blush).
I have an Aristotelian POV on “Politics”,
It is the essence of our humanity (ho/mo politicus Aristotle calls us)(idiot /censorship, worse than anything about the idiot acronym DEI)
It is all that keeps us from the War of All Against All — hell on earth
If done well then
we can live very well, with civil and economic freedoms within mutually acceptable (hmmmm) boundaries/laws, and
if done poorly, we fall into Tyranny with danger to our lives, and
our wealth is vastly diminished through arrogance diluted only by stupidity.
The USAian Republic was launched like a paper airplane trying to cross the grand canyon. We have done very very very well for two centuries, mostly by the good luck of having tech that was designed “by g-d” so as to help support truth telling in the Press and Academy, and of religions skeptical of human virtue unless it was constantly reinforced by a zillion social habits we have forgotten and lost.
No. In line = defending. But things are not all that clear cut. For example, giving bureaucracy too much leeway is giving the executive too much power that should rest in the legislative. “Clearing the swamp” would reduce the bureaucracy’s power, a good thing but there is a lot of pushback. Why?
There’s pushback because a lot of people view gutting departments and agencies as a very bad thing.
The congress established departments and agencies through legislation to make regulatory and policy decisions that comply with laws that are passed. It’s unreasonable to expect the legislative or judicial branches to have the expertise required for such things.
Back in the not-so-olden days, the bureaucracy served an important role in helping administer the laws passed by congress. Now we have Faux News hosts, MTV stars, and WWE clowns fiddle-fudging around, ignoring congressionally appropriated funding and solely executing the will of the president. Let’s chalk this up to yet another way the current administration is putting the constitution in a choke hold.
Oh, and let’s not forget the gutting of departments and agencies that were actively investigating Elon. Corruption, plain and simple.
I think you’d find far less pushback if the “clearing the swamp” was managed by congress, not the executive. Instead, we’re stuck with a bunch of bootlickers who are too afraid of their own shadow to exercise their constitutional authority.
Because he set up a government bureacracy to do it and that is not in the power, under the constituiton, for the executive branch to do that. That is in the power of the legislative branch. So it would be unconstitutional. Also the person running the bureacracy is getting kick backs while doing his job that he was not elected to do. Hence the swamp is cleaning up the swamp.
This is nonsense. The cabinets is appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate. It reports to the President who is elected by the people. The cabinet can scale down the departments as it wants.
Of course, if Congress doesn’t like the way that one of these rule making entities is operating, they can always change the charter. Much more in line with the Constitution than having the Executive trample all over it.
In other words, the legislative has more power over the administration than the administration itself. I would not want to run a business organized like that.
Lots of people don’t like it, but according to Article I, Section 8 of the US Constitution that’s the way it works in the United States. If Congress allocates money, the executive must spend it. This was just upheld (again) by the Supreme Court in regards to the USAID cuts.
From the USAFacts link:
{ All US PIAAC literacy results are for English literacy. }
The TX Rio Grande Valley is a “light colored swath” concluding the folks living there are “ignorant, uneducated”.
I suspect that were the literacy test to test based on Spanish, the literacy rate for the RGV would improve.
Just saying.
IMO, the “conclusion” based on only English literacy is … Biased to support a pre-conceived outcome… And therefore is weak.
I suspect that Western areas with large Native American populations suffer the same bias, and weakness.
ralph
I’m also intrigued by “50% of the population is, by definition, below average IQ”.
What percentage of the 21% illiterate are below average IQ, and by how much?
What percentage of the 21% have reading disability such as dyslexia?
I didn’t read the article to see if the data accounted for such information.
LOL you have no clue. You really need to read more. This is the problem with the illiterate they think they are smart. Doge is not a cabinet position, it is not under any cabinet secretary. It was constructed as it’s name infers. Department of Government Efficiency. Under Article 2 of the Constitution that rests with the legislative branch.
Seems to me it is not far from the role of a board of directors … setting policy and perhaps directly supervising some functions like audit … the voice of the shareholders.
Yes, that is the way it used to be. I remember reading of CEOs that were tossed by the Board, for doing a lousy job of running the company. Of course, that has changed in recent years, with Board members now serving at the pleasure of the CEO, and being tossed when they cross the CEO. See my previous comments and links about RS Board member Jessie Upchurch, when he criticized CEO John Roach.
So, yes, Shiny-land is, increasingly, being run “like a business”, with an unaccountable, CEO, in an echo chamber he filled with yes-men, whose only objective is to maximize the amount of loot he stuffs in his own pocket.
As we are seeing that isn’t the case either. The judges are giving everyone back their jobs. But of course firing air traffic controllers was not the smartest thing as we are seeing now.
LOL that is so funny. You clowns said it would be 2 trillion dollars and now you are saying 170 Billion. OOOOOH instead of delete it should be dribble, dribble, dribble. That is pathetic. Now I see where the Corruption really is LOL
