MSNBC is good for a laugh some times. During the election returns, they kept trying to put a happy face on it. Focus on places where the Democrat hung on. The ‘always overly chipper while being snide and snippy’ lady anchor (who’s name escapes me) all in a flush of joy over some Republican who has made history by losing twice to two women (apparently that matters to someone). While FOX was putting up nice maps of which State was what status, the MSNBC focus was on happy talk. Sigh.
At this point it looks like Alaska is still undecided (subject to change within minutes) and the Republicans have 52 in the Senate (soon to be 53). Then there is one run off election where the single Democrat didn’t score as high as the two Republicans combined, so it is most likely to be a Republican win. Call it 54 at the end game for Republicans.
So what does this mean?
Obama is calling for a grand meeting. Likely trying way too late to learn how to work with the Loyal Opposition instead of steamrollers. (While, IMHO, in the back room crafting a strategy for the Democrats to cram through all they can in the couple of months they still hold power). Republicans need to watch out for that and block it. No approvals for a sudden rush of appointments…
Next year, things change. The Senate can actually investigate a few things, like the use of the IRS as a personal attack dog / police force. Any time the Republicans are seen spanking the IRS they will get my vote, my money, and my support. I suspect that is true for the majority of Americans. But don’t stop there. There are a lot of scandals swept under the rug to be vacuumed up and inspected…
To The Republicans
Do not take this as an endorsement of your Agenda. It isn’t. The Folks are just fed up with broken government. It takes our money and returns abuse. YOU take our money and return abuse. Avoid the urge to spend buckets of money with Friends and Contributors as rewards. It will just make your tenure short. Oh, and stay out of my bedroom and my medicine cabinet.
A metaphor that a friend and I use is that the Democrats are all worried about what we do with our wallet. They want our back pocket. The Republicans are all worried about what we do with what is in the front of our pants. WE want you all out of our pants, front and back! So just stay out of our pants, and we can get along.
THE thing you could do that would gain you the most support is to take apart ANY chunk of intrusive government. Doesn’t have to be the whole thing. Any scrap will do. Just pick some agency and nuke it. Simply having the precedent made will make huge press (if you advertise it a bit). Maybe the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Declare it a left over of a bygone age and that you think Native Americans do not need a Federal Big Brother. Maybe the Department of Education. Simply state that States were doing fine prior to Carter and they will do better without any Federal Meddling. Nuke the School Lunch From Hell while you are at it. (Or just require it to be served to all sessions of Congress…) But pick something offensive and kill it. Each agency dead and gone is a large cohort of new Republican supporters.
Do NOT run into a frenzy of “Immigration Reform”. It’s at best a trap to load the deck with more Democrat leaning voters. At worst, it alienates your base. (And no, we are not being ‘racist’. My kid is married to a Hispanic and I was speaking Spanish in grammar school. It is recognizing that the Rule Of Law and fairness matters).
Oh, and while you are at it, that H1B visa program is why I’m not fond of you. A load of folks from India brought over to kill off the wages in computer jobs. The net result is that not a lot of American kids want to get degrees in computers. You’ve killed that industry. You have a choice: Accept that markets raise wages to signal folks to enter that field, and it will self correct while having a thriving job market for a few years; OR, have a load of H1B visa folks imported to kill off any field where the jobs are happening (and make a few rich companies happy). Those companies have some bucks, but we have the votes. We tend to lean a bit away from Republican candidates when they break markets and steal our paycheck. Just remember that “Americans First” can and does include Black, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, and all the other Americans. It is not a sin to stand up and say “I want our citizens, Black, White, Hispanic and all, to have first shot at good jobs.” (If you think the H1B visa program does that, it doesn’t. There is training available to write the job postings that bypass its ‘protections’…)
Ask yourself: “Why is Independent the fastest growing ‘party’?” Because we are tired of Crony Capitalism, intrusive government, taxes that never reduce, government that only grows – and by spectacular amounts – under Republicans AND Democrats. You have one more shot at it. Don’t blow it by doing the same as last time. Take an ax to the monster that is Federal Bloat and watch the support roll in.
That includes taking the NSA out of all our email, having the post office return to delivering the mail instead of photographing all of it, removing the “camera on every corner” mentality. Remember that the Supreme Court found for Roe v. Wade based on an implied right of privacy. Then ask what privacy we have today? Start making folks a bit more secure in that right and you get more support.
In short, return to being an advocate of The American PEOPLE first.
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Musings from the Chiefio 
Thanks for this election update.
I doubt if there will be any real change unless the public “holds the feet of Republicans to the fire.”
Well said, EM.
You must be talking about Rachael Maddow who cannot speak without a smirk. She thinks she is smarter than anyone and we’re all dummies when she is a colossal idiot.
The Republicans have to get over their terminal envy of what the Democrats can get away with and sending our young men off to wars that would not happen if we had put one nuke on Pyongyang in 1951 and another on Hanoi in the 60’s. Today if we put one on Mecca 78% of Islam would vanish as that rock the Sunnis worship would be vaporized.
We have to prosecute the executives of companies like Halliburton that rip off the government for billions and get fined a few million when caught. Dick Cheney was on their payroll the entire time he was Vice President. That stinks. There is much more….
Read all about by Googleing “The Two Minute Conservative.”
It should have been one more, but like always, the democrats are stealing one:
I don’t think anyone really gives a shit what’s inside your pants.
[ Reply: It is a metaphor for the Republican desire to restrict ‘immoral’ sexuality (with a small wink to drug laws and other bedroom / private life issues). The whole issue of gay marriage is from that camp. Look up ‘blue laws’ for more examples. Democrats don’t care what you do with your ‘front of pants’, but hate the idea that you might get and use money in a way of which they do not approve. Republicans don’t care what you do with your wallet (‘back of pants’), but hate the idea that you might use your sexuality in a way of which they do not approve. I think they need to think “above the waist” for both of them… -E.M.Smith ]
@Adrian Vance:
Yeah… that’s the one… I can take about 5 minutes at a time, then need to head to somewhere more sane… Yeah, not fond of the Old Big Money Buddy Club. The Republicans need to remember the Blue Collar Worker Republicans….
Per nuking folks: While effective (see Japan) it is rather a blunt instrument and likely ought to be reserved for last use… The problem is that it isn’t all that hard to make and deliver a nuke. ( I’m pretty sure I’ve worked out a ‘back door’ method to make and deliver one that would take out any major US city located on a waterway. No, I will not share the methods until seen in the published information. As a ‘security white hat’ I’m supposed to figure out what bad guys can do, so it is reasonable for me to think about such things.) So if you start dumping them on folks, expect to lose a few cities in return. You OK without NYC, Boston, L.A., San Francisco, Seattle, Houston, etc. etc.?…
So; much as I don’t like the US Govt lying to folks and spying on folks; the reality is that, IMHO, they have managed to prevent a nuclear war or nuclear use for over 1/2 Century that otherwise ought to have happened. That is no small accomplishment. Think about the level of technology in 1944. Now move forward 70 years to 2014. Think folks now can recreate devices made 70 years ago without much effort? While, then, a 4000 fps ‘assembly’ gun was a very great trick, it can now be had by cutting the snout off most any modern tank. Compute load? On a 1940 slide rule it was brutal. Now? My clock has more computes than needed. And so much more…
So while I agree that the ‘drop the big one now’ method would be effective, I question “for how long” and suggest that the end game price is a bit steep… I also have moral qualms about vaporizing a few million people, so prefer the scalpel until no other choice exists.
@Punmaster52: Thanks!
@PhilJourdan:
Verrrry Interrrressssting 9-}
(best German Monical emotocon I can think of ;-)
I think I’ll take my phone with me to the voting booth next time…
But it looks like the Republican still won:
http://hamptonroads.com/2014/11/results-rep-scott-rigell-keeps-seat-2nd-district
@EMSmith; Nice rant about the Republicans LAST CHANCE!
I wonder how the MSM will slant the “Do nothing Congress” mantra, with the removal of the Harry Reid Road Block. Prophecy says that after losing all popular support, Obama will attempt to rule by decree. So, “The One” will likely veto everything, claim Congress is trying to close down the government, And do what HE thinks is best. In the end he leaves in disgrace.
Buy more popcorn. We live in interesting times. pg
@E.M. Smith – Technology is both a boon and a curse. It makes government spying easier. But it also makes documenting it easier.
Regarding the “nuke ’em all” mind set, I am sometime surprised how popular the idea is. I had a long time acquaintance tell me that “as soon as the first soldier died in Afghanistan, we should have just nuked the whole country, wiped ’em out, every man, woman and child!” In support of his belief he told me that nine of the ten men who were members of his church breakfast group felt the same way. I am grateful to that tenth hold-out.
In contrast, I sometime hear members of the moralizing class say things like “violence never solves anything!” My response? Bull s$*t! That is the problem with violence; not that is is ineffective — but rather that is so completely, so universally, effective. Children misbehaving? Beat ’em. They’ll stop. Wife talking back? Slap her. She’ll watch her mouth next time. Someone living on land that you want? Kill ’em. Someone stealing the land where you live? Kill ’em. Someone related to someone who threatened you? Kill ’em. Violence always works if applied raw enough and in a large enough quantity. That is the trouble with violence. Not that it does not work, but that it works so well, that we are tempted to use it for every problem — even those for which there are much, much better solutions.
Steven Goddard aka Tony Heller suggests real change may happen:
http://stevengoddard.wordpress.com/2014/11/04/a-reminder-of-the-spectacular-fraud-being-committed-by-ncdc-and-epa/?replytocom=451824#respond
I am skeptical, but I certainly hope he is right.
@E.M: I, and I suspect a large fraction of the population, agree with your assessment:
“we are tired of Crony Capitalism, intrusive government, taxes that never reduce, government that only grows – and by spectacular amounts – under Republicans AND Democrats. You have one more shot at it. Don’t blow it by doing the same as last time. Take an ax to the monster that is Federal Bloat and watch the support roll in.”
The Republicans need to keep in perspective that this was not a pro-Republican election it was a lesser of two evils election. If they can avoid getting a swelled head and actually pursue the voting blocks that they have formerly written off like students they can win. That is one of the reasons Udall lost to Gardner here in Colorado. Gardner did not write off the young student votes and actually campaigned in those constituencies that Udall took for granted. Of course it helped that Udall ran a brain dead one song campaign and failed to get the memo that Obama was poison.
There are several other races that the R’s could have won but the third party candidate (libertarian or independent) spoiled the victory by taking just enough votes away from the Republicans that they could not unseat the Democrat.
Folks on the conservative, libertarian side of the issues need to think strategically. One of the reasons the R’s won a strong victory aside from Obama’s total disregard for anything not his agenda, is this time the Tea Party conservatives, held their nose and joined to break the back of the Democratic lock on the Senate. Now that the Republican’s have the Senate both the Tea Party Republicans and the Libertarian voters need to understand that change takes time. Just like the ultra liberals took over the Democratic party over a 20 – 30 year period, to fix the Republican party and the country will take a long persistent effort for the small government, conservative constitutional government voters to slowly pressure the old school Republicans to back away from their malignant crony capitalism. They need to start being the champion of the average small and mid sized entrepreneur rather than a handful of big money corporations and financial interests. They need to stop writing off large voting blocks like Hispanics and blacks and actually campaign on the issues they care about like good schools and unemployment in the inner cities, for American citizens. On the immigration front they need to start selling the point that the illegal immigrants are hurting other legal immigrants. If you get pissed off when someone jumps the waiting line at coffee shop how can you encourage and support folks who do exactly the same thing to legal immigrants that have followed the rules and shown they are law abiding citizens. You can be pro-legal immigration while being anti illegal immigration. I am sure the folks who now have paralyzed children due to imported diseases which were formerly almost unknown in this country have less than glowing feelings about unrestricted unmanaged undocumented immigration.
Same with the H1B visas, there is no shortage of high skilled workers in the U.S. the only shortage in that area is a shortage of profit for companies who want to shoot citizens in the foot to save a few bucks on salaries by hiring over seas workers many of whom have marginal skills at bargain basement prices. A very small fraction of the H1B workers I have worked with actually had the skills of the employees that they replaced. IBM laid off 3000+ American citizens and replaced them with 2-3 times as many workers in Brazil India and Singapore. Then swore that they were not laying off workers because their total international head count actually went up. It went up because it took 2-3 of the foreign workers to replace the Americans that they took over from after we trained them to do our jobs (just before we were given pink slips). It took then 45 minutes to an hour to solve problems we could fix in 10 minutes. On one occasion it took me 45 minutes (I timed it) to get a Brazilian operator to tell me what IP his server was using. That is something he should have been able to tell me in about 60 seconds. I have had Indian DBA’s on conference calls just walk away at end of shift and never fill in their replacement on what was going on, so we had to spend 30 min to an hour to get them up to speed on where we were when he sat down to take over the DBA duties on the bridge call. These were not isolated incidents but almost daily occurrences.
Ah.
@E.M. Smith: Right on, right on.
@E. M. Smith: That is an intriguing justification for government deceit: “So; much as I don’t like the US Govt lying to folks and spying on folks; the reality is that, IMHO, they have managed to prevent a nuclear war or nuclear use for over 1/2 Century that otherwise ought to have happened. That is no small accomplishment. Think about the level of technology in 1944. Now move forward 70 years to 2014.”
I neither agree nor disagree with your conclusion, but I privately struggled with the same issue before deciding that it was right for me personally (not necessarily for anyone else) to tell the world about two government lies that appeared as consensus science in 1946 – the same year George Orwell started writing “Nineteen Eighty-Four:”
1. Stars make and discard hydrogen
2. Neutron repulsion powers atomic bombs, nuclear reactors, stars, some planets, galaxies and the expanding universe.
As you said the entire political system is corrupt and broken.
It-s a nice idea some opposition against Obama policies finally has materialized but with his shameless addiction to use his Veto Power, not much will change.
I just forced myself to watch a full hour of MSNBC, thought it might be insightful considering the election results.
The first 15 minutes was a seemingly well balanced report of how the Republicans could screw up the immigration thing.
The remainder was a lot of crying about the mismanipulation of the voters which led to the catastrophe.
It was kinda fun.
No doubt there was wide spread vote number manipulation. The Democrats are masters of this game but they can only shift a close game. 3 to 5% is generally about the amount of advantage they can scam. Differences greater than that are drowned out. Tell me the voting count system and I can tell you the best method to improve your margin. As a one time Democrat I used to know about most of them. Absentee balloting is a wonderful thing for fraud. In one town in Alaska we had 3 times more votes cast then there were men, women, children, dogs and cats! living in the town. That was with Paper ballots!
In the old days you could only vote in person, in your precinct, by Identifying yourself before people that likely knew you, on a paper ballot that was actually examined and counted and stored for re-examination if needed. Fraud was possible but not easy. Now days, a computer hack is all that is needed and no trace to be examined. Generally the places where most voting fraud happens, the perps have control of any investigation. “We looked and there is nothing there.”
Obama “vote early! Ha, Ha. but only once! not like in Chicago. He, He.”
Democrats cheat to win, winning is the only thing that counts. If you cheat and lose, no one cares to investigate, If you win you control the investigation. pg
Both parties are willing to rig elections — though I admit that the Dems seem to be both more brazen and more prolific in their cheating. Here is the simple fact: electronic voting systems are designed to be hacked. Their lack of security and accuracy is NOT a bug, it is a feature. Here is one small example, sworn testimony by one of the programmers that he was told to make the software untraceably vulnerable.
http://www(dot)youtube(dot)com/watch?v=t4aKOhbbK9E
Even cursory investigation will show many more examples of fraud.
When so-called “elections” cannot be verified and are certainly being hacked, what ethical or legal obligation do we (as citizens) have to either governmental debts or treaties?
When the GOP has control, it should send a message to heads of ALL US FEDERAL AGENCIES:
“Please attach to your next budget request a list of names and salaries of all federal employees in your agency that contributed in any way to the UN’s IPCC (International Promoter’s of Climate Confusion).
Any other budget request will not be considered for renewed funding.”
Here’s a list of those who contributed to the latest UN IPCC report:
I thought this was good….
https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSDWmMVOCZWwdlOXgxoXdFCDLDfv4AU-uoWwd5DssGZTIRpL1mN
Great image — yes the best way to cut the budget is to freeze at current levels and let the department heads figure out how to make it work or, better yet enforce a continuing series of small across the board cuts — every department gets 98% of previous years budget (or block COLA increases) until we get in balance. You would also need a hard nosed committee who had the authority to shift a small percentage of funds around to cover emergencies like a major earth quake etc. Freezes of COLA (cost of living adjustments) work really well because that would push people out of government and back into productive jobs if they could make more in the real world than they could in government.
In the Carter years they had hiring freezes with freezes on total head counts. You need to hire a specialist, find someone else you can let go to keep the same head count.
Cutting Salaries is a good thing. Recent studies show that Federal workers are now the highest paid in the country – primarily because they ALWAYS get raises (where the private sector and states do not have that luxury in bad times).
But stay away from head counts. The agencies get around that with contractors. So if you “force” them to cut a position, they will simply fill it with a contractor (still at a lower salary, so there is a bit of saving).
@PhilJourdan:
Do what is done in the Private Sector:
1) You get a headcount limit.
2) You get a contract $$$ and contract headcount limit.
3) You get a fixed budget $$$ limit.
Go over any of them, your boss talks to you and / or he gets a new guy… ’cause HIS limits have to be met or he gets ‘talked to’… or no bonus… or worse…
I know, I’m dreaming….
Put an END to BONUS for doing your job! Why do Bureaucratic managers get bonuses for just showing up and doing their jobs? Bureaucrats and politicians claim that you get what you pay for and they must pay more for better people. Bull Crap! the more you pay bureaucrats the less they do and the greater contempt they have for their employers, the people. pg
Phil says, “they will simply fill it with a contractor (still at a lower salary, so there is a bit of saving).”
[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[
I have worked for several medium large companies. Management is often too far removed to know the qualities of their employees, so the “savings” may be on paper only.
Regarding Larry said…https://chiefio.wordpress.com/2014/11/05/republican-landslide-democrats-surprised/#comment-59917
very good comment, full agreement, have been saying so for some time. The GOP has lowered the mean age of the senate by 12 years, with women and minorities that may be real conservatives, and may be able to communicate more effectively to those voting blocks you mentioned. Who gives the message is as important as the message.
As to ways to cut cost, besides hiring freezes, etc, there is non replacement of retires and transfers. (wag of 3% to 7 % a year.) From what I know of government operations, most could lose 20 percent, and still get the work done; far more in education with out of line admn costs.
@E.M. – The company I use to work for, based out of Philadelphia, but whose largest office is in the Beltway, was a company whose sole purpose was to provide contractors to the government. And it was very successful. So I am very familiar with the shenanigans of the Feds.
But do not stop dreaming! Maybe one day, congress will slip up and actually write laws that apply to themselves and make sense. Even I can dream. ;-)
@ David A …
For many government agencies, no level of staff increase or decrease would “get the work done”,as there is no useful work product. A vast amount of government is studies and reports that are never used, programs that are staffed but never implemented, and support of internal priorities, from meeting and conferences and “training” to eeoc and other interminable interagency lawyering.
@Richard Ilfeld & PhilJourdan:
Exactly why I advocate for abolition of whole departments and agencies instead of “reform”. Every time I hear “reform” now my stomach flips and I grab for my wallet…
@E. M. Smith
Apparent success in deceit destroyed limits on constitutional government.
@E.M.Smith
I certainly agree, a good place to start would be something like the following legislation:
1. Abolish the entire IRS system except for 50% of the employees who are directly involved with processing tax returns.
2. Abolish in its entirety the U.S. tax code
3. Institute a flat tax of 12% of wage income for All full time residents of the U.S. regardless of citizenship status.
4.Corporate taxes set at 18% of earnings
5.Small business / corporations (to be defined by congress) tax rate at 12%
(some provision which would make it more productive to invest money in productive use such as R&D, construction of facilities and payment of wages but would place a burden on money derived entirely by playing interest rate spreads and other such speculative non-productive financial activities)
Yes I know I missed a few things but frankly I do not have a good enough grasp of issues like off shore earnings to propose solutions that would bring that money home to the U.S. rather than have it sit off shore.
Some sort of provision which would discourage huge top executive salaries and benefits (including stock option golden parachutes) which encourage games to inflate stock value rather than to increase the real productive value and earnings of a company.
Point being, it is time for a reboot of the tax system. Make the congress have a balanced budget each year or specifically vote yea or nay (no present or abstain votes everyone goes on record) on a supplementary surtax if necessary to augment the 12% flat rate as necessary to reach a balanced budget. Make that vote onerous enough and public enough that there would be very good reason to stay within the 12% flat tax revenues, and basic corporate revenues.
@E. M. Smith
I post the following information to end my role in the sixty-nine year reign of rule-by-deceit:
We – like admirers of the Emperor’s new suit of imaginary cloth – produced world tyrants by our own mental laziness and willingness to accept nonsense as consensus science that we understand (because we don’t want to appear stupid).
The Big Bang, Black Holes, Dark Energy, Hydrogen-Filled Stars, Quarks, Gluons, Oscillating Solar Neutrinos, AGW, etc. are all threads of deceit that arrogant but foolish world tyrants wove into fabric of consensus science to control the public worldwide.
“And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
P 3 of “Solar energy,” Advances in Astronomy exposes their deceit:
Click to access Solar_Energy.pdf
Specifically, the weakest nuclear force – neutron-repulsion – is the most important nuclear force in heavy atoms, some planets, ordinary stars and galaxies.
1. Because neutron repulsion is the weakest nuclear force
2. That is why the nuclear structure changes at ~150 amu
3. Alpha-decay occurs above ~150 amu (atomic mass units), because alpha particles (i.e., He-4 nuclei, or pairs of n-p pairs) are on the nuclear surface and neutrons are confined to the core when the mass number is greater than 150 amu, A > 150 amu
4. Spontaneous fission begins when the nuclear core has 52 neutrons surrounded by 45 alpha particles in Th-232, or 46 alpha particles in U-236, or 47 alpha particles in Pu-240.
5. Neutron-induced fission is possible when one additional neutron is added to the 51-neutron core surrounded by 46 alpha particles in U-235 or 47 alpha particles in Pu-239 or 48 alpha particles Cm-243.
6. Spontaneous fission is the dominant decay mode when the nuclear core has 58 neutrons surrounded by 48 alpha particles in Cm-250 or 49 alpha particles in Cf-254 or 50 alpha particles in Fm-258
Thus, neutron-repulsion usually determines the stability and decay mode for every physical structure composed of neutrons and protons more massive than 150 amu (atomic mass units) – no matter whether the structure is a heavy atom, planet, star, galaxy, or the entire universe !
These truths leave absolutely no room for world tyrants to rule the world with deceitful, consensus “science.”
@E.M. – I grab more than my wallet, but it still hurts when they “reform” things.
@ David A …
For many government agencies, no level of staff increase or decrease would “get the work done”,as there is no useful work product. A vast amount of government is studies and reports that are never used, programs that are staffed but never implemented, and support of internal priorities, from meeting and conferences and “training” to eeoc and other interminable interagency lawyers
==========================
Richard, I do not disagree. Ever compromising with a statist is to lose the game.
However dramatic movements like that, bring about dramatic media responses. Perhaps a combination of the two approaches. Pick an area where it is certain the cuts will not result in reporters running to film some overblown hyped result, and make the strong cuts there to prove they can work. For instance, on a state level, if Calif was to cut school administration 30 percent across the board, there would be zero negative affect on education. But republicans would need media access to show the incredible waste of public funds in school administration.