A billion dollars of fraud every week

For John, BLUF:  The Bureaucrats at Treasury, and perhaps elsewhere, slowly slipped into a routine of no checking on the Peoples' money.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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The Machine Fights Back

Here is the sub-headline:

Inside Treasury's War Against Its Own Reformers

From EKO Loves You, by Blogger EKO, 9 February 2025.

Here is the lede plus one:

When DOGE found empty fields in Treasury's payment system, they uncovered more than missing data.

They found a mechanism.

Simple things were left blank:

• Payment categories
• Payment rationales
• Basic audit controls

The kind of fields any small business would require.  The kind that let you track where money goes.  The kind that stop a billion dollars of fraud.  Every week.

Here's what Treasury didn't want exposed:

Over $100 billion flowing annually to accounts without Social Security numbers.  No temporary ID numbers. No verification. Nothing.

When Musk asked Treasury officials how much was "unequivocal and obvious fraud," the answer revealed decades of corruption: HALF

Let that sink in.

$50 billion per YEAR.

A billion dollars every SINGLE week disappearing into accounts that shouldn't exist.

It is like the Federal Bureaucracy had become an ever growing, self serving mechanism, immune from oversight.

And, it appears the Federal Courts are in sympathy with this jaugernaut, and willing to shield it from scrutiny.

Hat tip to the Citizen Free Press.

Regards  —  Cliff

The Bureaucrats vs the Elected Officials

For John, BLUF:  Some believe that the Federal Bureaucracy has aa block of officials who aree dedicated to resisting the Administration of President Donald Trump, Version 2.0.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Leftist Ideologues Dominating the Federal Civil Service Have Created a New Version of the Spoils System

From PJ Media, by Mark Tapscott, 17 January 2025, 7:07 PM.

Here is the lede plus two:

This won't shock anybody who served time working in the government bureaucracy, but the biggest obstacle facing President-elect Donald Trump likely isn't the Elite Media or the Deep State, but rather the management ranks of the career federal civil service.

"Wait a minute, Tapscott," you may be muttering. "Are you telling us that nameless, faceless bureaucrats are going to be more powerful and influential in blocking Trump's Make America Great Again (MAGA) agenda than the 'journalists' at ABC/CBS/NBC/New York Times/Washington Post and the political plumbers of the Intelligence Community?"

Why yes, that is exactly what I am saying, and Exhibit A here is a recent survey conducted for the Napolitan Institute by RMG Research of 500 federal civil service managers being paid at least $75,000 and living in the Washington, D.C., region.

Like myself, the author comes from a family of Federal Bureaucrats, he more in depth and my more in breadth.  But, like me, he wonders if the gains from the Pendleton Act of 1883 are beeing sustaijned or perverted.  As we recall, a merit based Civil Service was introduced because of the assassination of President James A. Garfield in 1881, by a disappointed office seeker.

Today we have an entrenched Civil Service which seems, in part, to see itself as the fourth branch of government (the Fourth Estate, pushing aside the Press), responsible for protecting the Government from the actions of Congress and the President, and the Supreme Court.  They are the Technocrats running the Administrative State.

A survey of 500 federal civil service managers being paid at least $75,000 and living in the Washington, DC, region, by RMG Research for the Napolitan Institute, found "42% of those federal managers surveyed declared their intent to either strongly oppose or oppose Trump once he is sworn in and back in the Oval Office".  That does not strike me as show a Democracy should work.  That is surrendering control of our lives to self-prepetuating Administrators.

But, on the bright side:

44%, said they would either strongly support or support Trump's agenda.  But then we read that among the federal managers who identified themselves as Democrats, two-thirds said they would actively oppose orders advancing Trump policies.

But, most revolutions are brought about by a small group with the belief that they are correct and the vast majority is either wrong or clueless.  Revolutions are brought about by groups less that 40% of the population.

If you are an anti-Trumper and you are counting on the Bureaucracy to control President Trump you are showing Fascist tendencies.  What you should have done was work harder to see Candidate Kamala Harris elected.  What you did was not sufficient.  You failed.

The negative attitude toward Bureaucrats and a Bureaucratic State were expressed Friday by Senator Tim Sheehy (R-MT).  He noted "This Country Was Not Founded by 65-Year-Old Bureaucrats".  Granted, Ben Franklin was 70 years old when the Declaration of Independence was drawn up, but the writer was Thomas Jefferson, at 33.

There is an importance place in our system for a meritocratic professional Civil Service.  But, they are there to implement the laws as passed by Congress and administered by the Elected President.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Check the Data

For John, BLUF:  The Bureau of Labor Statistics has a difficult job and finds itself always having to update their data,  One would expect the Secretary of Labor to keep up on this.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

---

Biden's commerce secretary ridiculed for saying she's not 'familiar' with damaging jobs report, blames Trump instead

Here is the sub-headline:

Many wondered why the commerce secretary was unaware of the newest jobs report.

From Blaze News, by an unkown reporter, 22 August 2024.

Here is the lede plus five:

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo was mocked and ridiculed over her response to a blistering jobs report on Wednesday.

Raimondo was being interviewed on ABC News from the Democratic National Convention when she was questioned about a revision showing that the number of jobs in the U.S. had been overestimated by nearly a million over the last year. Instead, she accused former President Donald Trump of being a liar.

'We’re in the best of hands.'

“I don’t believe it because I’ve never heard Trump say anything truthful,” responded Raimondo.

"It is from the Bureau of Labor," replied the reporter.

"I'm not familiar with that," Raimondo said.

I have a friend who thinks the problem here is Fedeeral Bureaucrats who can't do the statistics well.  His solution is to fire people.

I expecct those bureaucrats are trying to do the job as best they can.  On the other hand, this response suggests that there might be an advantage to the Voters to fire the Cabinet Secretary.  How can she lead the Department of Labor if she doesn't know what is going on in the Department.  How can she emphathise with the workers if she doesn't understand the water within which they swim.

If the Cabinet Secretary doesn't understand the numbers, what is the chance the President, and the White House understands the numbers?

Regards  —  Cliff

Trump the Tyrant

For John, BLUF:  This week the media has been talking about the potential for Donald J Trump in a dictator in his second term.  They do know he voluntarily left the White House in January 2023, don't they.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

---

From Instapundeit, by Law Professor Glenn Reynolds, 6 December, 2:00 PM.

Here is the lede plus one:

THE NEW YORK TIMES IS CONCERNED TRUMP MIGHT DO WHAT BIDEN HAS BEEN DOING: “He has threatened to use the power of the presidency against his political opponents, including President Joe Biden and Biden’s family.”

I mean, I know these people are utterly lacking in self-awareness, but. . . .

Yes, last night he joked with News Host Sean Hannity about issuing orders to stop illegal immigrants and to drill, first day in office.  He then said, aside from those two executive orders he would stay calm in office.

On the other hand, he was been badly abused, in and out of office, by the Fifth Estate, the permanent bureaucracy.  Even President Biden is finding that the bureaucrats have a mind of their own and don't like to be contridicted.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Pendleton Passé?

For John, BLUF:  Just another reason why folks are open to another Trump term.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

---

FAKE NEWS

From Instapundit, by Law Professor Gail Heriot.

Here is the post:

:Before the Commission on Civil Rights releases a report, we try to agree on findings and recommendations.  It’s hard.  But for our report on Anti-Asian Racism, the Commission was able to muster a majority in favor of a limited number of recommendations.  That’s progress–at least for those who like to see a little bipartisanship now and then.  Unfortunately, it hasn’t done us a bit of good.  The Commission’s staff recently issued an “infographic” on the report that lists “Key Recommendations for Action.”  But with one exception, they’re not the recommendations the Commission actually agreed to.  We figured in that it was a mistake of some sort.  But no.  When four Commissioner informed the Staff Director of the problem, we expected he’d fix it quickly.  But he has declined to do so.

The bureaucracy is out of control.

This makes one wonder if The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act, from 1883 was a mistake.  The Act, from back when Chester A Author was President. was designed to end the turmoil of the spoils system.  This was strengthened by the 1939 Hatch Act, which was wsritten to kep the Civil Service out of political activity.

During the 2020 election cycle, Federal Executive employees gave $37,368,311 ($27,141,594 to Democrats vs $9,026,820 to Republicans)(72.63% to Democrats and 24.15% to Republicans).

Perhaps we should go back to thee Spoils System, so Republicans, when they gain office, can have a bureaucracy that will support them in executing their program.

Having saiod thsat, I never sensed that my Father, a Civil Service, ever pursued a "politial agenda", nor did either of my two Brothers in the Fedeersl Civil Service.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

The Indirect Approach

For John, BLUF:  Former President Donald Trump must be seen as a major threat to Democrats and Bureaucrats, for them to go to these extremes to prevent him running for office.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

---

Will Colorado Force Trump Off the Ballot?

From PJ Media, by Reporter Lincoln Brown, 7 September 2023, 6:12 PM.

Here is the lede plus three:

No matter where one stands on Donald Trump, one must agree that it is the understatement of the century to say that the saga is unprecedented in American history.  The efforts to ensure that the man never sets foot in the Oval Office again are destined to become the stuff of legends and history lessons, not to mention a docudrama on Netflix or Amazon Prime.

The latest effort to ensure that nothing orange ever passes through the West Wing again (with perhaps the exception of an actual orange) involves invoking the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, specifically, Section Three:

No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.  But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability. (Emphasis added.)

The D.C.-based group Citizens for Responsibility & Ethics in Washington (CREW) has joined the fight to keep Trump off the 2024 ballot by filing a lawsuit Wednesday in the District Court in the City and County of Denver, Colo.  A press release on CREW’s website states that Trump has, in fact, violated the 14th Amendment, and Crew has filed the suit on behalf of six Republican and unaffiliated Colorado voters.

But, yet, Impeachment failed and recent indictments do not include either "insurrection or rebellion".  So insurrection or rebellion can be imputed by the exclusion of Mr Trump from the ballot?  It would appear so.

There is a gamble here.  That would be that the tens of millions who have voted for Mr Trump in the past, and wish to vote for him in the future will not rise up against the Government, in a real insurrection.  I would not encourage such acton.  If Mr Trump is denied the opportunity to stand for office then his suppoorters should unite around another candidate, one who promises to go after the deep state.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

The Administrative State

For John, BLUF:  The question of the place of Givernmental Bureaucrats in our scheme of Government is an important one.  It is becoming a topic of debate out in the public square.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

---

Who Should Regulate?

Here is the sub-headline:

The question of whether federal agencies or the courts should have the right to interpret legislation may seem technical, but it significantly affects the power of the government.

From The New York Review of Books, by Professor Cass R. Sunstein, May 26, 2022 issue.

Reviewed:

The Chevron Doctrine:  Its Rise and Fall, and the Future of the Administrative State
by Thomas W. Merrill
Harvard University Press, 355 pp., $35.00

Here is the lede plus three:

Does the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have the authority to impose a mask mandate on people who travel on planes, trains, and buses? In April a federal district court in Florida offered a clear answer: Absolutely not. The court gave an exceedingly narrow reading to the CDC’s powers under laws enacted by Congress. In the process, it sent an unmistakable signal: some conservative judges will not allow federal agencies to protect public safety and health unless Congress has unambiguously given them the authority to do so.

That signal is ominous. In a period of congressional deadlock, federal agencies often have to take the lead in responding to urgent social problems. During the Covid-19 pandemic, many of the nation’s most important decisions about vaccinations, air travel, masks, social distancing, and more have been made by White House officials, the CDC, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Policy responses to climate change have also primarily come from the White House, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and other agencies.

Because public policy is often made by administrative agencies, it can shift dramatically from one administration to another. Whether we are speaking about public health, civil rights, clean air, health care, food safety, tobacco, or immigration, fundamental policy judgments might well depend less on Congress than on who wins the presidency.

The administrative state has been with us since the founding. But much of modern government can be traced to the 1930s, when in response to the Great Depression Franklin Roosevelt created a host of new agencies, including the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Communications Commission, and the Social Security Administration. These agencies exercise a great deal of discretion, and they affect the lives of millions of Americans every day. (They also have international influence.) They were born in a period of enthusiasm for technical expertise: Roosevelt and his New Dealers believed in the rule of law, but they did not believe in the rule of courts; they wanted to give authority to specialists.

Later in the article Professor Sunstein gives a look at the issue:

Justice Brett Kavanaugh describes the [Chevron] doctrine as “nothing more than a judicially orchestrated shift of power from Congress to the Executive Branch.”

And this is one of things that worries me about our Government.  We elect people to the Houose of Representatives and Senate, and we elect a President, but the Bureaucrats selfpropogate, under little supervision from the other branches of the Government (Judicial and Legislative).  It is the Admijnitrative State.  To quote the Wikipedia article:

Dr. Michael Greve, a law professor at George Mason University School of Law, defines the current implemented administrative state of the United States as, “a power once known as 'prerogative'—that is, the power to make binding rules without law, outside the law, or against the law, exercised by someone other than an elected legislature,"

You may find the idea of a technocentric government as good, based on the idea that the technocrats know what they are doing.  However, technocrats have brought us such things as eugenics and the Tuskegee Experiment.  Dependiing on the experts to deide what is good for the rest of us may be good with airline pilots, but semms antithetical to a Democratic or Republican form of Government.  When and where do the People decide?

If you thought Dr Anthony Fauci was supurb conducing the US response to the COVID, you might favor the Administrative State.  On the other hand, if you have been dubious of our overall response, if yoou wonder if Governor Ron DeSantis did a better job that Governor Andrew Cuomo in helping their state through the crisis, you might be opposed to the Administrative State.

I worry that the People, the Voters, might never get a voice in this debaate.

Regards  —  Cliff

Having a Pure Federal Bureaucracy

For John, BLUF:  Right now this is a he said; she said kind of thing, but it is a sign of bad things happening in Federal Bureaucacies, in this case the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Today’s blacklisted American:  Biden administration purging conservatives from FBI

From Brhind the Black, Author Robert Zimmerman, 15 June 2022, 1:20 pm.

Here is the lede plus one:

Blacklists are back and the Democrats have got ’em: According to numerous whistleblowers talking to the office of Congressman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), the FBI has been aggressively blacklisting any employee who happens to express any conservative opinions at all.

Jordan detailed the most recent actions in a June 7th letter [pdf] to Chris Wray, director of the FBI, which was also a follow-up on another such letter sent in May

Lots of links.

Writer (and Patriot) Sarah Hoyt posted this to InstaPundit.  Given the turmoil of the last seven years, this is a concerning straw in the wind.  It might just be disgruntled employees, urged on by trouble making Republicans in Congress.  On the other hand, it could be a tone deaf upper management, trying to conform to some distorted view of righteousness.

Whatever the story, most Americans are looking for an FBI that is both sqweeky clean and effective.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Have The Tables Turned on Capitol Hill?

For John, BLUF:  Threat of a Coup (Coup d'Etat) on the part of a Democrat in Congress (New York 16th District Democrat Representative Jamaal Bowman).  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Squad Member Threatens 'Civil War' If GOP Takes House

From Town Hall, by Managing Editor Spencer Brown, 14 June 2022, 10:15 AM.

Here is the lede plus one:

Democrats are scrambling to cobble together a case for why they should be reelected and maintain control in the House less than five months before the midterms, and one progressive member of the House is raising eyebrows for the explanation he made as to why Democrats should be elected in November.

Unsurprisingly, Democrats don't have much of a case to make ahead of the midterms.  Their majorities in Congress and Biden in the White House have ushered in inflation at 40-year highs, gas prices doubling in less than 16 months to set records beyond $5 per gallon, an open border, a crime crisis, and international embarrassments.  So, when two thirds of Americans are living paycheck-to-paycheck, what case is left for Democrats to make?  Vote for us or there will be civil war.  Hoo-boy.

Joining MSNBC's The Cross Connection with Tiffany Cross over the weekend, [Representative Jamaal] Bowman — who is a member of The Squad(TM) — explained what Americans can expect if Republicans pick up seats and retake Congress this November

"Vote for us or there will be civil war."  That is not an attractive approach.  It says that if the American Voters, by some majority, back Republican Candidates, then the MINORITY! the losers, will rise up in revolution, in an Insurgency against the Majority.

If Rep Bowman was thinking a massive Voter Education program, so 2024 will go differently, then fine.  However, it sounded like he wants to change our form of government, by force, to empower Blue Areas, like LA, Chicago and New York City.  That would be morally and Constitutionally wrong and would likely evoke an armed response.  Representative Bowman would be like a modern day Jefferson Davis, walking away from a life dedicated to these United States, as West Point Cadet, Senator and Secretary of War.

Perhaps Rep Bowman believes the Democrats can pull off a coup, backed by Progressives in the Federal Buureaucracy.  Would the Biden Administration back such a move?

Where does Representative Liz Chaney stand on this?

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Information Curation

For John, BLUF:  The Federal Government wants to control messaging out on the public airways, including Social Medial.  They may think they are doing good, but their approach is evil.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Whistleblower Docs:  DHS’s Disinfo Board Was Poised to Crack Down on Information Questioning Vaccines, Masks, and Validity of 2020 Election

From American Greatness, by Ms Debra Heine, 9 June 2022.

Here is the lede plus two:

The Department of Homeland Security’s paused “Disinformation Governance Board” (DGB) was set up to respond to matters the government unilaterally determined to be mis-, dis- or mal-information (MDM)—specifically information that counters official regime narratives on “the origins and effects of COVID-19 vaccines,” “the efficacy of masks,” the validity of the 2020 election,” and “falsehoods surrounding U.S. Government immigration policy,” records obtained by Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) reveal.

A DHS whistleblower provided the senators with internal DHS documents revealing how the board planned to coordinate with social media platforms to enable the removal of user content it deemed to be “MDM.”

“The First Amendment of the Constitution was designed precisely so that the government could not censor opposing viewpoints – even if those viewpoints were false.  DHS should not in any way seek to enlist the private sector to curb or silence opposing viewpoints.  It is therefore imperative for DHS to provide additional clarity regarding its policies and procedures for identifying and addressing ‘MDM,’ as well as its efforts to ‘operationalize’ public-private partnerships and the steps it is taking to ensure that it does not infringe on the constitutional rights of American citizens,” Senators Hawley and Grassley wrote in a letter to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

It isn't that Government People are bad People.  My father, an Uncle, my two brothers and my three children have all worked for the Government at one time or are working for the Government now.  However, some folks believe they are doing "God's Work" and try to "help" too much.  For example, Ms Lois Lerner, from the IRS, thought she was doing a good thing, but it was, in the end, the wrong thing.  She didn't understand that the basis for our form of government is that a lot of folks can be wrong, but we pick our representatives and let them work it all out.  If the First Amendment means anything, it is that you have the right to express wrong ideas.  Sometimes we have elections to determine which ideas we will follow.  Ms Lerner either never learned that or forgot it, or learned the wrong lessons in Grade School about fair play.  However you see it, she doesn't understand America.  And that is sad.  And I am not so sure President Biden, Speaker Pelosi or Majority Leader Schumer do either.

The bottom line is that information Wants to be Free.  We should not be having Governments restricting it.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

The Administrative State

For John, BLUF:  For a Century the US Congress has been delegating its authornity to Bureaucrats in the Executive Branch or in independenert agencies.  As the author says, this started to be big with President Woodrow wilson.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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A Chink In The Armor Of The Progressive Administrative State

From Manhattan Contrarian, by Mr Francis Menton, 23 May 2022.

Here is the lede plus two:

The great mission of the early twentieth century Progressives was to transform our constitutional order without ever amending the Constitution itself.  The intellectual leader of the movement was Woodrow Wilson.  The fundamental idea was to replace the messy and contentious system of separated powers and slow bi-cameral lawmaking with a cadre of supposedly apolitical administrative “experts” who could run the country smoothly and efficiently. The idea sounded rather benign to most people at the time, and probably still sounds benign to most people today.  Who could be against having “experts” to run significant government agencies?  But a hundred-plus years into this project, we have seen cancerous growth of vast administrative bureaucracies, outside the constitutional structure, and exercising great powers, but accountable to no one but themselves — the very antithesis of the constitutional structure that our founders attempted to bequeath to us. Last week the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans knocked a significant chink in the structure under which many of these agencies operate.  This chink may be only the first of many to come.  But we have deviated very far from the original structure, and the process of conforming the agencies to the constitutional structure will be a long and difficult one.  It is not moving quickly, and likely never will.  In this post I’ll try to give readers some perspective on where we are and where we may be headed, drawing in substantial part on a long post I previously wrote back in 2017.

When I was in grade school in the 1940s and 50s in South Jersey we were taught that President Woodrow Wilson was a great President.  Since then I have learned better.  He was problamatic in terms of race relations and bureaucratic growth and foreign relations and in terms of incapacitated Presidents.

We are talking laziness on the part of our elected representsatives.  And lazyiness on the part of we the voters.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Hope Over Reality

For John, BLUF:  Not every good idea works out when it meets reality.  The groceery store plastic bag ban is an exaample.♠  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Research suggests plastic bag bans may be backfiring in a way that makes complete sense once you think about it

Here is the sub-headline:

From Not the Bee, by the NTB Staff, 30 Mrch 2022 4:30 pm.

Here is the lede plus one:

Plastic bag bans are fairly irritating—they're paternalistic, preachy, and they deprive countless homes of the endless usefulness of the all-purpose plastic bag—but more than that, it appears that they might not actually, you know, work:

Researchers at the University of Georgia suggest that banning the sale of plastic bags may come with a side-dish of unintended consequences.

The new analysis suggests that plastic bag ban policies — while well-intentioned — may end up having the opposite effect.  The issue that comes up is that grocery bags are viewed as single-use items, but they often get a (brief) second lease on life as liners for small trash cans.  Without the shopping bags available, people look for alternatives — which the researchers suggest means they buy small plastic garbage bags.

And there you are.  Do state legislatures not have research organizations?  People who look at the long term conseuences.  I would give a pass to local elected bodies, but if it is a city the size of Lowell, Mass, don't they have a Department of Planning and Development, with people capable of asking questions?.

The plastic bag ban is another triumph of hope over reality.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  From our time living in the Naples, Italy, area, in the mid 1970s, the NATO Allied Community (US, British, French, Greek and Turk) referred to the small plastic bag as an "Italian Attache Case," in that they were (re)used on the local economy to carry just about anything.

Telling the Truth

For John, BLUF:  Sometimes Government begin to think things are all about them, when, in fact, it should be about the People.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Not just Russia:  America has a problem speaking truth to power, too

From The New york Post, by Professor Glenn H. Reynolds, 31 March 2022, 8:02pm.

Here is the lede plus three:

Russian President Vladimir Putin is in trouble in Ukraine, and it’s because people lie to him.

That’s the story put out by US intelligence officials, and it has the ring of truth.  Apparently, Putin wasn’t told of the miserable state of readiness of Russian troops, the unavailability of spare parts and repair facilities, the shortage of transport, the inefficiency of the Russian air force, the lack of trucks needed to haul ammunition, food and fuel to the front or the surprising effectiveness of the Ukrainian military.

Putin’s “senior advisers are too afraid to tell him the truth” about “how badly the Russian military is performing and how the Russian economy is being crippled by sanctions,” according to the White House’s Kate Bedingfield.

. . .

Thing is, the hide-the-bad-news dynamic is growing by leaps and bounds right here in America.

And there is the problem.  We, as Americans, are facing the same problem as President Putin.  As he is Sovereign in Russia, we, the People, are sovereign here in the United States, and we are not getting the truth.  And while some might point to this President or that President, I believe the problem is in the permanent Bureaucracy.

The permanent Bureaucracy has institutional interests and will act to defend those interests.  It is the job of Congress, and the president, to fight those institutional interests and substitute the interests of the People.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Following the Science

For John, BLUF:  The last two years appears to have seen a certain amount of fraud on the part of Federal Medical Sciencists, aided and abetted by the media, including social media.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Johns Hopkins Study:  Lockdowns Are A Failure

From Victory Girls Blog, by Ms Nina Bookout, 2 Februry 2022.

Here is the lede plus three:

Lockdowns are a failure. That’s the gist of a new in-depth study from Johns Hopkins. How much of a failure? Covid mortality rates were reduced by a mere .2%

Lockdowns during the first COVID-19 wave in the spring of 2020 only reduced COVID-19 mortality by .2% in the U.S. and Europe, according to a Johns Hopkins University meta-analysis of several studies.

“While this meta-analysis concludes that lockdowns have had little to no public health effects, they have imposed enormous economic and social costs where they have been adopted,” the researchers wrote.  “In consequence, lockdown policies are ill-founded and should be rejected as a pandemic policy instrument.”

POINT TWO PERCENT! That’s it. That’s all the lockdowns did in regards to keeping us “safe” from Covid. : In other words, the draconian lockdowns have solved nothing and have, as we’ve written about multiple times, caused more problems than it solved!

There is a lot we didn't know about COVID-19 when we became awware of it.  I am sure that some in Government felt that their duty was to provide the People with a firm path forward, leaving no room for doubt for the benighted hoi polloi.

Going back to the root of the current problem, it seems that some from the Federal Health Establishment felt that it was more important to appear certain than to admit the uncertainty that existed.  The mask thing is, for me, an example.  From we don’t need them to we need two shows a self-serving set of bureaucrats, trying to downplay the importance of masks, to protect the supply, to eventually, everyone should be masked.  Self-serving medical-political leaders.  The thread through it all is don’t trust the benighted hoi palloi.  That is no way to run a democracy.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Integrity in Science

For John, BLUF:  Science should not be treated like a religion.  Questioning should be endemic.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

---

Team Biden’s plan to ‘ensure scientific integrity’ should start with itself

From The New York Post, by Law Prof Glenn H. Reynolds, 13 January 2022, 6:23pm.

Here is the lede plus three:

The Biden administration has announced a plan to “ensure scientific integrity.”  It’s about time.

The White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy, in a 67-page report, says the task force aims “to ensure that science is conducted, managed, communicated, and used in ways that preserve its accuracy and objectivity and protect it from suppression, manipulation, and inappropriate influence — including political interference.”

It won’t have to look far: The United States government has been misbehaving on the scientific front for years, most notably in the COVID-19 pandemic.  Political interference, suppression, manipulation and inappropriate influence have been standard, which is why trust in government, particularly on science, has fallen so far.

Ironically, even as this initiative was announced, damning new information about government scientists’ response to the COVID-19 outbreak came out.  A series of just-released e-mails from top scientists revealed they were highly confident that the disease came out of a Chinese laboratory, even as their public statements treated any such suggestions as crazy talk, “conspiracy theory” and “misinformation.”

The COVID-19 Pandemic has gone a long ways toward discrediting "science".  One of the things I hope has been discredited is the expression "The Science is Settled."  Science is about delving deeper and gaining a better understanding of what is actualy happening.  As a result, science advances by hungery young sciences attacking the theories of the older, more experience, entrenched establishment scientists.  The new scientists breaking with the old scientists.  I remember a CNN newscast from around 1985, in which a guest said that 80% of what was scientific truth in 1900 we now knew to be false.

Let us respectfully question scientific truth, looking to see if there are seams in the seamless garment of science.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Squeezing the Border

For John, BLUF:  The COVID-19 Pandemic, like life itself, requires tradeoffs in which it is not all win-win.  Sometimes the Government Bureaucrats choose poorly.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Vaccine Mandate for Cross Border Trucking Now in Effect, Mandate for Domestic Trucking Begins in a Week, Prepare Your Affairs Accordingly

From The Conservative Three House, by Sundance, 16 January 2022.

Here is the lede plus three:

The cross border vaccine mandate for truckers in/out of Canada is now in effect.  The U.S. vaccine mandate takes effect on January 22nd.

It will take a few days to see the consequences, but there will be consequences.

Keep in mind, any impact is taking place in a supply chain system that is already tenuous and unstable at best.  A small disruption that may have been minimally significant against a fully operational supply chain, is more likely to be a much bigger disruption in a supply chain that is already under a severe amount of demand side stress.  Somewhere in the range of 16,000 to 38,000 daily loads are likely to be impacted.

When questioned about this, Canadian Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic Leblanc says the trucking industry “has had adequate time to prepare for this.”  Keep in mind, the mandate was announced 45 days ago (November 30th).  According to the Canadian government, changing the structural rules for all the logistics and commerce in cross border shipping, 45 days is enough notice.

Yes, plan for shortages.  I am not thinking the bureaucrats have thought this out long term.  Or maybe they didn't talk amongst themselves.

As for the Truckers, "Last Year's Heroes, This Year's Zeros."

The good news is that we have a capitalist system, which gives flexibility to the economy, allowing individual entreprauners to adjust here and there, keeping the economy going.^nbsp; At least let us hope so.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

To Space Without Wings

For John, BLUF:  In a move that seems petty and woke and bureaucratic, the Federal Aviation Administration has changed the rules for issuing "Wings" to those who soar to 50 miles above the earth.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Rare FAA rules change means Blue Origin crew may not get official 'wings'

From United Press International, by Mr Kyle Barnett, 23 July 2021, 8:27 AM.

Here is the lede plus two:

Federal aviation regulators have made a rare change to the requirements for its Commercial Astronaut Wings Program, meaning Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos may not officially be recognized for his spaceflight this week.

The Federal Aviation Administration changed rules for the program on the same day Bezos, his brother and two others made their historic first commercial spaceflight on Tuesday.

For the first time in 17 years, the FAA updated its Commercial Astronaut Wings Program.  Before the change, all that was required to be recognized was to fly to at least an altitude of 50 miles.

Give me a break!

On the other hand, Mr Bezos has done something none of those FAA Weenies have done—gone into space.

It isn't the "wings", ...

... it is the adventure.

Here is the take from Law Professor Glenn Reynolds.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

A Work In Progress

For John, BLUF:  Even in hidebound bureaucracies it is possible to foster innovation and creative thinking.  We should encourage such aberrant behavior.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Inside the Secretive Government Unit Saving American Lives Around the World

Here is the sub-headline:

A little-known team of medics and miracle workers—hidden deep within the U.S. Department of State—opens its doors to Vanity Fair.

From Vanity Fair, by Reporter Adam Ciralsky, 6 MAY 2021.

Here is the lede plus two:

In a concrete hangar in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, Katrina Mayes is working with precision and purpose.  Wisps of smoke surround her, wafting off the dry ice she is using to jerry-rig a cardboard vaccine carrier.  Her task:  to create a vapor phase vent to moderate the temperature of the cooling container from around minus 80 degrees Celsius (for storing Pfizer’s COVID-19 vials) to minus 15 degrees Celsius (to accommodate supplies of the Moderna vaccine).

At 29, the biochemist and virologist has spent much of her professional life indoors, where the U.S. government has entrusted her to handle some of the world’s most lethal pathogens—including Ebola, Lassa fever, and Nipah viruses—at top-secret Biosafety Level Four facilities.  “I shower six times a day,” she tells me.  “I’m the cleanest person you’ll ever meet.”  Her winning smile and gallows humor mask the gravity of her work, which has involved diffusing poison-laced letters that have been mailed to federal buildings.

On a Tuesday in March, her mission was just as urgent but more life-affirming. Dubbed “Operation Icebox,” Mayes was helping deliver nearly 200,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine to American embassies, consulates, and other overseas posts scattered across six continents.  It is a complex affair involving two dozen jets that are big enough to fly long distances—carrying ultra-low temperature (ULT) freezers—yet nimble enough to land on a variety of runways.  Mayes’s colleague Taundria Cappel, a Guyanese émigré who began her government career as a secretary, oversees the entire operation—at age 30.  “We are the MacGyvers of the State Department,” she explains.  “People come to us with crises and we develop solutions.”

That our Department of State has a specialized unit, ready to go anywhere to medically treat and evacuate American Citizens is an encouraging sign.  It shows innovation alive and well within the bureaucracy.  It gives me a good feeling.

After a few paragraphs on the lack of diversity of race and ethnicity within the Department of State—there is no diversity—we come to this set of sentences:

“Diversity of opinion and diversity of options,” Walters responded when I asked about the net effect of his hiring practices.  “There’s no groupthink.  There’s not enough people that are similar to create groupthink.”

This is how diverity pays off for America.  "Diversity of opinion and diversity of options" is greatly to be desired.  It generates its own rewards for those who would encourage innovation.

We forget that the clash of ideas has been important since the Europeans came to these shores.  We may think of our Founding Fathers as all cut from the same mold, but a hundred years before they gathered in Philadelphia they would have been running their conferees out of town for holding different and diverse views on issues such as religion  Yet, gathered in Philly in 1776 they were able to come up with some innovative ideas of governance.  Not perfect, but trail breaking.  They hadn't grown alike, but they had learned to get along.  President George Washington, yes, a slave holder, managed to break through some barriers, to give room for Catholics and Jews in the new nation.  A work in progress, which we should further.

Regards  —  Cliff

The Non-Neutral Bureaucracy

For John, BLUF:  The sad thing is that I was not surprised by the FBI determined the Congressman Steve Scalise shooting was "Suicide by Cop".  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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An outrage from the FBI

From The Washington Examiner, by Columnist Byron York, 23 April 2021, 08:44 AM.

Here is the lede plus three:

AN OUTRAGE FROM THE FBI.  On June 14, 2017, a team of Republican lawmakers went to an athletic field in Alexandria, Virginia to practice for the annual Congressional Baseball Game for Charity.  As they worked out, a man armed with a semi-automatic rifle and pistol approached and opened fire.  Representative Steve Scalise, the House Republican whip, was gravely wounded.  A lobbyist was also seriously hurt, and a congressional aide and Capitol Police officer were wounded, as well.

The shooter, James Hodgkinson of Belleville, Illinois, was an active Bernie Sanders supporter who hated Republicans and particularly hated then-President Donald Trump.  "Trump is a Traitor.  Trump Has Destroyed Our Democracy.  It's Time to Destroy Trump & Co.," Hodgkinson posted on his Facebook page.  He thought of himself as part of the Resistance.  He joined Facebook groups like "Terminate The Republican Party" and "Join The Resistance Worldwide!!"

Hodgkinson came to the Washington area in 2017, living out of a van parked in Alexandria.  He brought his guns and developed a plan to attack Republicans.  He went to the baseball field with a list of several GOP members of Congress in his pocket, along with physical descriptions of some of them.  Before the attack, he asked Republican Representative Jeff Duncan, who was leaving practice early, whether the players on the field were Republicans or Democrats.  Duncan said it was the Republican team.  A short time later, Hodgkinson opened fire.  After a rampage of nearly ten minutes, he was killed by Capitol Police and Alexandria Police.

The attack was a clear act of violent, politically-motivated domestic terrorism.  There was simply no doubt about that.  And yet last week, Republican Representative Brad Wenstrup, who had been at the practice, revealed that the FBI concluded Hodgkinson was simply trying to commit "suicide by cop."

Interestingly, we were in Belleville, Illinois, at the time.  Our youngest, a lawyer in the Department of Justice, called us and gave us a heads up, in case there were like-minded individuals in Mr Hodgkinson's home town.

My conclusion is that while the FBI still carries guns, and can arrest you (and spy on you in contravention of the Bill of Rights), they are not a serious organization.  The likes of FBI Personnel such as Former Director James Comey and Agent Peter Strzok make that obvious.

The current witch hunt for ["right wing"] extremists, while marking the attack on the GOP Congression Baseball Team as "Suicide by Cop" is deplorable.

Now I have to ask myself if I violated my own admonition to show respect while critizing; "Do so respectfully".

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Government Inertia

For John, BLUF:  Even handed reporting is a myth, generated during the 1940s and 1950s, and the early 1960s.  In the mean time the Bureucracy is the real Fourth Estte.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Trump-era inertia bogs down agencies as Biden seeks urgency

From The Boston Globe, by Bloombery reporters Ari Natter and Todd Shields, 5 March 2021, 5:12 pm.

Here is the lede plus two:

Interior Department staffers churned out dozens of drilling permits despite an order for upper-level review. The US Postal Service spurned green alternatives and bought tens of thousands of gasoline-powered vehicles.  And across the government, Donald Trump loyalists remain in influential positions.

President Biden is being defied by his own government as his ambitious plans to undo four years of Trump run into a harsh reality: The government lumbers on, slow to turn course even after an election.  Cumbersome bureaucracy threatens his agenda on everything from fighting climate change to ending the coronavirus pandemic.

“You load these systems up and they are going to keep grinding,” said Paul C. Light, a professor of public service at New York University.  “They don’t stop to congratulate the president on his inauguration.  They keep going and stopping them is difficult.”

The article is correct, but misses the point.  Former President Donald Trump gets copious mention for "embedding" his people, but the former president encountered the same thing, if not worse.  He had to deal with an FBI criminal conspiracy being waged against him and his people as he ran and then was Inaugurated.

By the way, the photo in the article in The Boston Globe is not of the new US Postal Service truvks to be purchased, but of the older model, currently in use.  Not helpful.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff