The Bidens were reportedly left waiting outside the White House on Inauguration Day because Trump sent the staff home
Government
Graft and corruption
Microsoft President describes the bribery that makes our government work.
It (cash) plays an important role. Not because the checks are big, but because the way the political process works. Politicians in the United States have events, they have weekend retreats, you have to write a check and then you’re invited and participate. If you work in the government affairs team in the United States, you spend your weekends going to these events; you spend your evenings going to these dinners, and the reason you go is because the PAC writes a check.
Smith added that the relationships built at these events make it more likely lawmakers will be receptive when he calls them to ask for their help on employees’ immigration cases, as well as “issues around national security, or privacy, or procurement reform. Or the tax issues our finance team manages.”
When legislation controls what gets bought and sold, the first thing that is bought and sold are the legislators themselves.
Rigging the vote
Dems to set election standards
Like I have been saying, the Democrats are going to change the rules so that no one but them will ever win control of the government again. The Republicans who say “we will get them next time” are deluding themselves.
Democrats make federal election standards a top priority
There won’t be a next time.
Presidency
Ex-President Club
There is a story in the national press that Trump is shunning the “ex-President” club that goes on to note that the club doesn’t want him, either. According to the story:
Members of the ex-presidents club pose together for pictures. They smile and pat each other on the back while milling around historic events, or sit somberly side by side at VIP funerals. They take on special projects together. They rarely criticize one another and tend to offer even fewer harsh words about their White House successors.
I call bullshit on that last sentence. George W Bush was critical of Trump from his first year in office. So did serial philanderer, possible pedophile, and sex pervert Bill Clinton. Obama spent Trump’s entire term criticizing Trump and organizing “the resistance.” Carter even refused to accept the results of the 2016 election, something we are told is traitorous and rises to the level where removing sitting members of Congress is the only possible remedy.
So it comes to no surprise that Trump doesn’t want to hang out with the assholes. I wouldn’t either. Would you?
War on the Right
Weapons and the Military
When I was in the Navy, a buddy of mine and I were FFL holders. We had gotten the FFL because we wanted to buy guns at wholesale prices. We also made a bit of cash on the side, selling guns to fellow service members. This was in the Reagan/Bush timeframe, so Clinton hadn’t yet begun his attempt at killing “kitchen table gun dealers.” To make it legal for the weapons to be in my off base apartment while we were out doing various Navy things, we made my (then) wife a part owner of the business.
I had this hardcore, lefty Lieutenant (O-3) from New York city that was in my chain of command, and he found out about our little side gig. He called us into the office and began yelling at us, calling us “Soldier of Fortune, Rambo wannabes.” He then ordered my buddy and I to shut down our business and turn over all inventory to the police. He claimed it was a direct order, and we would be prosecuted under the UCMJ under Articles 89, 91, 92, and 134, and he would have us court-martialed. We both refused, and pointed out that since my (then) wife was part owner of the business, such an order would be unlawful, as he had no jurisdiction.
He became irate, and called us “sea lawyers” and then promised to make our lives “a living hell.” The point of this story is that Big Country’s tale is not a surprise to me. It has been going on for years.
Republicans
Leaving the party
Hundreds of voters who were registered to vote as Republicans are changing their party affiliation. The press is claiming that Republicans are leaving the party because they disagree with the riots in the Capitol.
I think that they are getting it wrong. There is a good number of voters who are sickened by how tone deaf the Republican leadership is towards its members. Perhaps many of them are leaving the party because they have come to realize, as I did more than a decade ago, that just because the Democrats are your enemy doesn’t mean that the Republicans are your friend, and the Democrats telling lies does not mean that Republicans are speaking the truth.
Too many of us are tired of being ignored by the political class in this country- a political class that intends to be our master, rather than our servant.
Silence the opposition
Spying on America
One of the first orders that Biden gave to his new director of intelligence (DNI) was an order to spy on American citizens. Sure, he couched it as if he is going after “domestic terrorism,” but that is merely a fig leaf. They have been spying on Parler and its users with the intent of making sure that they STAY shut down.
It is illegal for intelligence agencies to spy on American citizens within the United States, but the CIA and their assistants at the NSA and other US intelligence agencies don’t let little things like the law, the Constitution, or civil rights get in the way.
For at least the past twelve years, the government has claimed that you have no rights against searches and spying. I warned the right that the Patriot act would one day be used against them. They didn’t listen.
Power Grab
Not even hiding it anymore
Schumer and Warren write an article explaining how eliminating student loans will help old people, too. It isn’t enough that the press is in their pocket, now the Democrats are actually writing the articles for them.
Government
How much did that cost?
Wharton did a study that found people are happier when they make more money. No shit. They needed a STUDY to know that people making enough money so that they can pay bills, live in a nice house, and buy nice things makes them happy?
I am betting that this study was done at taxpayer expense. I wonder how much it cost, and how happy that made the people that had to pay the taxes to fund it.
Up next: The government lowering taxes and leaving people the fuck alone makes them happier, too. Right after that, they can study the last election to figure out how Biden got votes in the middle of the night while no one was looking.