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Trenches, Human Nature, and Numbers, by Robert Gore

Posted by straightlinelogic 7 years, 3 months ago to Government
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At least 95 percent of what the federal government does will escape the purview of the Trump team. The small slice that draws their focus will run smack into committees, paralysis by analysis, endless consultations, inaction, obstruction, back-door appeals to friendly legislators, unfavorable media stories and editorials, demonstrations, lawsuits, and every other stratagem ever devised for stopping change in its tracks. Political parasites battling for their power and perks fight with the same ferocity as dug-in platoons.

As trench-mates they’ll have the media, whose already vicious attacks will only intensify. In his 2002 book Bias, former CBS journalist Bernard Goldberg noted that media coverage of homelessness came and went with Republican and Democratic administrations. We’ll soon see a jump in articles on homelessness and every other suddenly pressing socioeconomic problem imaginable. Those problems worsened during Obama’s tenure, but the media refused to take notice. Trump won’t even get a honeymoon before they’re “rediscovered.”

This is an excerpt. Please click the above link for the rest of the article.
SOURCE URL: https://straightlinelogic.com/2017/01/11/trenches-human-nature-and-numbers-by-robert-gore/


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  • Posted by chad 7 years, 3 months ago
    Even if Trump was different than his predecessor which I don't believe he is he will have virtually no effect. He has appointed people he wants to run the bureaucracies which should not exist. There is no way to trim socialism a little to make it work better. It is a cancer that is either eliminated or succeeds in killing its host. Eliminating or even reducing the national debt is not possible with a fiat currency system even if the system was owned by the government, which it is not. The largest problem is not just the weasels who want to keep their jobs at tyrannical unconstitutional bureaus but the 98% of the populace that support them. Even when you think you are talking to a 'conservative' if you discuss philosophy with them long enough you will discover that they have their favorite socialist program that they think if it were eliminated the world would collapse, but the others must go.
    If the populace would simply ignore the socialist leaders they (the leaders) could not function in their capacity to be slave holders. The ACA is not about health care so pointing out that it is a failure in providing promised benefits fails to realize that it is merely about collecting more taxes to bring money out of circulation in hopes of preventing hyperinflation which might wake up the masses to discover there is an enormous problem waiting to destroy their economy. The direct taxes in the form of 'premiums' is only part of the new taxation. All medical appliances are now being taxed; this includes everything from band aids, tampons, crutches, tooth brushes and anything else that can be associated health care. Also a new tax has been placed on real estate sales, 5%, tanning salons and any other health care provider causing all those prices to increase. My premiums have increased 8.75 times and my deductible went up 70 times and only covers each first time instance it does not accrue to a point where the ACA finally pays for all required healthcare. When examined closely there is an enormous inflow of money and the strategy for paying out is to avoid it if at all possible. The Republican promise is to repeal the act (not all of it they want to keep the good parts) and replace it. Which in politic speak means wait till you discover what we do to you next. I am not paying my ACA premiums nor will I. When they come to collect, their insurance had better be in effect because someone is going to need Obamacare.
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  • Posted by ObjectiveAnalyst 7 years, 3 months ago
    Hello straightlinelogic,
    I believe your analysis is right on target. No matter who is in charge the debt and bureaucracy must be cut down to manageable levels. Although it is probably too late to cut the behemoth down to size in time without some serious pain, regardless of who is in charge. The last paragraph is perfect and undoubtedly the best we can realistically hope for.

    Regards,
    O.A.
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    • Posted by $ Radio_Randy 7 years, 3 months ago
      I don't believe anything is "too late" to take action on.

      Little over a year ago, nobody (okay...few) believed Trump would ever make it to the Presidency
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      • Posted by ObjectiveAnalyst 7 years, 3 months ago
        Hello Radio Randy,
        I hope you are right. The debt will crush us unless they take a chain saw to the budget and size of government... or grow and sustain the economy at rates we haven't seen in decades, while being fiscally responsible and not spending more. ...heard it all many times and I'm a bit jaded, but I do hope to see it once again. If I didn't keep the pilot light inside going, I would probably not be here. :)
        Best of Fortunes in the New Year,
        O.A.
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        • Posted by $ Radio_Randy 7 years, 3 months ago
          There will be plenty of economic growth with all the new jobs that will appear, when we boot out a few million illegals. Of course, the filling of many of those jobs will require our leaders to wean people off Welfare and food stamps, effectively forcing folks to go back to work.

          I wouldn't relish having to scrub toilets, for a living, but I was willing to do most anything, back in the day when I didn't have two nickels to rub together.
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        • Posted by CircuitGuy 7 years, 3 months ago
          "The debt will crush us unless they take a chain saw to the budget and size of government."
          [Sarcasm]Oh, I always been against debt-funded gov't spending. What we need instead is fiscal stimulus focused on capital investment in public infrastructure projects.[/Sarcasm]
          Yes. I'm a bit jaded on this issue too.
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    • Posted by EdGoldstein 7 years, 3 months ago
      History says your right. No nation that descends into bureaucratic hell has ever recovered. The bureaucracy often survives national collapse, as in the case of German bureaucrats who have maintained power through 2 world wars. However the people never recover their freedom if they ever had it. (Germans never have)

      My hope is in the view of history as a random walk. There are no vast Marxist social forces. Only people making individual decisions against a background of random events. If enough of us are strong individualists willing to fight the collective bureaucratic monster, then bureaucracy can be beaten back. It is not likely, but it is all we have.
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  • Posted by DrZarkov99 7 years, 3 months ago
    As I've said many times, we could throw out all of the elected politicians, and little would change. The institutional mindset of government agencies is held by unelected bureaucrats, who zealously protect themselves from retribution for their mindless abuse of the polity.

    Announcing a reduction in staffing by attrition and retirement buyouts is one way to start to revise this menace. Terminating the existence of some elements of the agencies is another, but harder to do. It will take a full eight years to begin to make a dent in a corrupt, entrenched government bureaucratic establishment.
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  • Posted by coaldigger 7 years, 3 months ago
    I do not believe that the task of righting the ship is impossible but I do agree that we are on a path that will take us to the bottom. Obama has failed, so far to destroy the United States that he and his companions hate so much. I say so far because there may be a poison pill left behind that will take effect after he is gone that will complete the job on someone else's watch and lead to a call for his return.

    Trump is a completely unknown factor to me because I cannot determine what he really believes by what he says. If he manages to survive and make any difference it will keep open the possibility that leaders that have actual ability can enter public service and serve their country. His greatest foe is the unseen enemy but the corpses that you describe will be the hordes that he will have to battle every day. I think the only way to prevail against them is by their ruthless destruction without regard to unfortunate collateral damage. Repeal it. Eliminate it. Close it. Empty it. If it is there it is part of the problem, drive it away! Analysis and evaluation be damned. Slash and burn. There is nothing there that is doing more good than harm. Why try to fix it? Is this not what you do when turning around a business that is failing under its own weight? Perhaps Trump and his cabinet are businessmen. Perhaps they know they have a small window for actions that they can take only moving quickly and by surprise.
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    • Posted by blackswan 7 years, 3 months ago
      A lot of what Trump will have to do will be via pen and phone, just like what O did, precisely because of the speed bumps that will appear. They let O get away with NOT enforcing our laws. Trump will have to be just as committed to actually enforcing our laws, and refusing to enforce the booby traps obviously laid by O and his minions. In fact, some of the departments should be eliminated, if not by legislation, then by starvation. EPA, HUD, FDA, DOE and education readily come to mind, while others should be shrunk considerably, and their scopes curtailed. If that's all the Trump can do in the next 4 years, the change should be sufficient to prove the theory that he's moving in the right direction.
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    • Posted by 7 years, 3 months ago
      You may be interested in my article, "Feared, Not Loved," if you have seen it. The link:
      https://straightlinelogic.com/2016/11...
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      • Posted by coaldigger 7 years, 3 months ago
        Thanks for the link. I agree completely and the sooner, the better. Audit with an axe! Stop anything that is not essential. Erosion is too slow, excavate! Stop stupid spending and regulating. Get out of the damn way and let the private sector work it out. 90% of the services the government attempts to provide is an opportunity for a private firm to meet the demand at a profit.

        With a sane approach to the future I believe the debt will melt away with little notice. It is mostly a threat because we keep doing the same things that created the deficit in the first place. How much of the money that we owe ourselves going to impact us if we are reducing it instead of adding to it? Debt to third parties must be honored, of course but in a sane economy it is a positive investment on their part in our system.
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  • Posted by mia767ca 7 years, 3 months ago
    Leviathan awakes...the obstacles to a successful Trump presidency are numerous and onerous...and include mr. trump himself...
    Reagan battled the govt leviathan...he was happy to get 75% of any change to big govt he attempted...still govt grew each year of his presidency..,he still managed to launch an economic boom...1.1 million jobs created every month for 19 months in a row at it's height...but he did not face the debt that Obama, Bush, and Clinton created after him...i am not optimistic, but will welcome any delay in what is coming...

    posted to facebook and emailed to many friends...
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  • Posted by Owlsrayne 7 years, 3 months ago
    The cabinet nominee's are going to have to be strong will with the spirit of a revolutionary. They will have to be ruthless in "Draining the Swamp". They will have to have in place a very large pump and hose to run continuously to remove the sludge (the laggards & lackeys) form the respective agencies. To use a pirate phrase "No Quarter Given".
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  • Posted by evlwhtguy 7 years, 3 months ago
    your point is well made on the homelessness example....hopefully Trump will stay true to form and blow it off as "Fake News" [A strategy the Democrats came up with but that Trump was smart enough to glom on to] or just say...These people make their own choices and the libs wont let us put the truly crazy one in mental institutions!
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  • Posted by CircuitGuy 7 years, 3 months ago
    We think alike, or maybe you're partly inspired my posts. Or maybe I came to my thoughts partly from straightlinelogic articles over the years.

    You avoid writing an alarmist way in this article, but there are some alarming figures.

    This post summarizes many of my views.
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