Excellent point about making too much of presidential elections; Although it seems like Biden/Harris have screwed up everything they could have, in truth, they are powerless to make it much better or much worse. And four years is not near long enough for Trump to drain the swamp, especially since he'll spend half his time fighting lawfare from the entrenched progressive interests. The next three elections, 12 years, may make a difference.
Very nice interview. Would like to hear more of your thoughts about the breakdown of right/left as useful categories for understanding our politics, and the use of court/country as more suitable.
"the rocket catch isn't just like an engineering victory, it's a cultural-spiritual one too, it stirs in us a deep yearning for science, physics and the objective truth. once you taste it, you know we must have more and this hunger itself may be the driving force of civilization."
Creative force vs obstructive force. "This hunger itself."
In the YouTube video, the timestamp didn't take. This happens on Substack from time to time, for whatever reason. You can fast-forward to 16:09 to watch Harris scold about Trump's terrifying joke-making behavior.
The sad truth is that she lacks the vision and the intellect to grasp what is at stake. I keep thinking if we go any further in her preferred direction we will al.be living in less Miserables.
Cheap shot, I know, but I think that she drinks pretty regularly. For the life of me, I don't know how she got through law school and passed the the bar.
Sorry, I just couldn't stand listening to any more from that woman, I've heard enough to know how disgusting and phony everything is that comes out of her mouth.
God no, could never listen to that execrable creature for even a nanosecond.....wearing noise canceling headphones for the duration....God bless for your powers of endurance!
My desperate hope is that Kamala (by whatever is the pronunciation du jour), having been tapped by Joe and then knifed by his repeated close policy embraces, will disappear from the scene in the political equivalent of the Titan implosion, her voice never to be heard again. Perhaps she might find a suitable position as a composted manure turner at the Harris Ranch near Coalinga, CA.
The cringe video is odious but listen for one minute, 33 to 34 mark. Kamala says that in her four years as senator, her favorite committee was the Senate intelligence committee, where there was no partisanship, and everyone was a colleague and took their coats off. She is giving away the game in this comment as it is very telling though she proudly relates it.
As many of us have come to understand, the troubles we've experienced have been orchestrated by intelligence, with military and State Department partnership (as the planners and enforcers for the hidden wealth elites who determine the script). Anyone getting in their way, even Musk, will pay the price and be made an example of for daring to challenge the powers that be.
"Senate intelligence committee," especially one with Commie-La on it, is another oxymoron for George Carlin's collection, like guest host and jumbo shrimp.
Your sacrifice for our common welfare in listening to this harpy cannot go unremarked. I’m reminded of Prince Faisal’s comment to Lawrence (of Arabia) as Lawrence leaves for England: “What I owe you is beyond evaluation…”
"A culture of professional scolds is gathering more weight than the culture of action that it increasingly suffocates."
We also see this in the economy, where the 'fake' economy of government grants and "PPP"s are overtaking the actual economy of voluntary trade for goods and services.
There is something ironic about "candidate of joy" Kamala complaining that meaniehead Trump is out there telling jokes and making people laugh.
she's just the random rambling drunk girl at the end of the bar who should have been cut off 3 drinks ago but she has an open tab with her platinum amex so...
Same sentence hypocrisy, not that she or her supporters ever realize it, but it seems to be the goal. The holy grail of narrative-chanting and loyalty signaling sans anything that smacks of logic. Communists leaders always prize such people.
“Prize” in the sense that they’re the only ones allowed to survive outside the gulags. Is there ANY doubt the Democrats would impose a social credit system given half a chance? It’s the natural follow-on to censorship. With a CBDC, you’d not be able to ride mass transit, order an Über, or buy food other than bare subsistence rations. Further noncompliance gets you to a permanent Alaska “vacation” north of the Arctic Circle.
A good friend of mine knew Solzhenitsyn, who vouched for him to get a Visa to the USA. In fact a chapter in one of the Gulag archipelago books is dedicated to my friends father. My friend says similar things about communists. He says the ultimate narrative chanter/ toady was Khrushchev
all her fans are pretty miserable too. has there ever been a more slimy woman than hillary clinton? no wonder her husband chased anything in a skirt. or michele obama lecturing the DNC audience about owning more than you need and no one seems to get the irony!
there's always this petty authoritarian bossy edge.
my BF is in NYC right now working on a Broadway christmas show. one of his colleagues has a political sticker on her road box- "Harris/Walz- mind your own damn business!" and below that "I'm Talking!"
another colleague posts on Facebook "I'm with her and I'll say it to your face!"
i've still got my RFKjr signs in my front yard. i figure most people can take that an indication that i'm voting for Trump. but those signs just say "Kennedy for President." they don't say "Kennedy for President and you can fuck yourself!"
you hear newscasters say things like "well, he's despicable and all his followers are despicable too." or you see on Facebook "If you're thining of voting for Trump, you are morally inferior and that's that."
the people calling for tolerance, diversity, acceptance, kindness and justice were cheering when unvaccinated people died, advocating for them to be tossed in camps, disowning their relatives. they've moved on to cheering when the "courts" stretch the laws so they can "get" Trump. "i can't wait until they seize his properties!!!" i ask "will you be ok when they seize yours?"
these people have lost the joy and the humor. they can't laugh at themselves or at anything for that matter
“has there ever been a more slimy woman than hillary clinton?”
Detest her I do, but I must raise a point in her defense:
At the Democratic debate on 4/26/07, Brian Williams of NBC asked the candidates what they’d do if another 9/11 happened on their watch. Obama gave a typical long-winded answer about making sure first responders have all the supplies they need (in his role as Stock-boy in Chief). But Clinton to her credit, responded “I think a president must move as swiftly as is prudent to retaliate.”
17 years later, this still sticks with me, if only because it’s Clinton’s sole redeeming feature.
Not to mention another 4.5 billion in forgivable student loans this past week Then there’s the $400 million Lloyd Austin just hand delivered to the non president of Ukraine. We can’t take much more.
A movement to cut off the government’s source of actual cash will draw a response faster and more severe even than an armed rebellion. Refusing to pay your own taxes draws a strong response, but RECRUITING people to such a cause brings Hellfire and Brimstone virtually via parachute. The conspiracy charge gets you locked under the jail without bail.
Oh I think determining the optimum size for government is like determining how much insurance to buy. You simply reduce it to the lowest possible number, the divide it in half a dozen more times and there you are. There is a certain size, to your point, very close to 0, that is optimum.
Agreed. It's the only way to smash the Blob. Get the feck rid of all the unelected pricks and the BS alphabet agencies--100%--pouf--gone! Be gone with the retards, morons, bloated bastards--once and for all.
As for The Cackling Retarded Moron, be done with her, too. The trash bin is far too nice for the likes of that garbage!
I cannot watch one more second of The Cackling Retarded Moron.
Yes, yes, and yes. This subtraction would be a great start...though I cannot believe it will actually happen. Most likely it does not or it is some neutered version that takes a few million off the books. But we can hope and dream about the glorious reduction.
That was the original purpose of the “Office of Management & Budget” in 1970, to review regulations to ensure compliance with Administration goals as well as to control costs. It has almost entirely failed in its objectives.
The CCC is a clown show. If you want to build a house within the coastal zone, permitting takes a very long time. It’s 3-4 years now to permit a new build between the municipality and CCC I’m told. I did an addition on a house about 10 years ago and there was a big deal made about some drainage thing I had to build to prevent runoff and flooding and death and destruction from my 1/4 acre. I can’t remember the term of art for the drainage feature, but it was some rocks in the dirt basically about 15 -30 feet long and 7 feet wide. It held up the certificate of occupancy for quite a time until the doofuses from the city had it pointed out to them that based on the design they approved, it couldn’t actually be built without damaging existing structure and the law said that they couldn’t force me to demolish existing structures to build it. So in the end they just said “f-k it” after months and multiple revisions and gnashing of teeth. I had previously pointed that since we were adding square footage to a house there would be less drainage than there was prior when that area was just landscaping and there was no special drain there before, and that the whole thing was dumb, but dumb is never a reason not to do something in a government it turns out. I know - first world problem, who cares. But the same power hungry petty bureaucrat desk jockeys just told the best entrepreneur in the world to buzz off and take his geometrically growing enterprise with him, with all the obvious attendant second order economic effects. How you do one thing is how you do everything.
I think part of that problem is the same as it is here: the older generation of regulators/inspectors where men with the actual technical know-how in their respective field.
From the early 1990s (here) the ever-increasing percentage of people without technical skills but with the requisite degrees in courses relevant to admin-jobs has caused the current situation where the decision maker and inspector can only follow protocol.
And a protocol can never cover the specifics on the ground, only provide a general rule to follow /for someone who has the technical know-how to adapt to conditions on the spot/.
I am planning and budgeting for a compost-toilet, something the county doesn't like people having since it means they can't charge inspection and pumping fees for the blackwater catch-well. The rules are written by competent people though, and are meant to prevent seepage of sewer-water into the groundwater - eminently reasonable. Here's the funny part:
I wrote the poor clerk at county, asking this:
"If me and the wife do our business behind a bush, that's a violation, right? Because it eventually seeps into the aquifer?"
"Yes"
"But what about our dogs? They do their business all over the lot. Every day, several times over."
"But that's not a problem."
"Do you mean to say that dog poop and piss don't seep into the aquifer?"
"...?"
You see where this is going. The poor clerk couldn't understand that if I can have X number of dogs who do their business three times a day on the same acreage, or if two humans do it, to the ground and the ground water it's all the same. Crap is crap and piss is piss and it all filters down in different ways.
Whereas a friend of mine who I work with at the church charity is a retired water/sewer-technician just laughed out loud and slapped the table when I told him this.
Anyway, my advice freely given (you get what you pay for, eh?):
Treat it (bureaucrazy) the way you do a strategic target in your line of business, rather than an obstacle: that way, it becomes easier to see the rules®s as points of leverage rather than obstacles.
(Also it helps - me at least - to keep the BP down.)
On a positive note, thank goodness we have federalism. Our system allows for localized approaches and experimentation. Yes, California was once the land of opportunity, creativity and optimism; now it is an ossified museum exhibit with great weather and beautiful scenery. There are still a lot of ambitious people in California, but increasingly they are choosing to locate in other, more dynamic states. Thank you, Founders, for crafting this wonderfully flexible US system.
Also one of the things keeping Canada from totally imploding. For as much as everyone in Ottawa and Toronto is despised in the rest of the country, provinces like Alberta, Saskatchewan and - especially - Quebec have enough elbow room in our federal system to tell Justin to get fucked.
Too bad foreigners can’t contribute to Poilievre’s campaign. Why is it that liberals in both our countries are so much more effective (i.e., “ruthless”) than conservatives in controlling back benchers?
Since Pierre Trudeau the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) has become more and more centralized to the point where it's really the unelected executive of the country. The Liberal party historically has been much more docile in that sense, especially during the Chretien years, given that it sees itself as Canada's Natural Governing Party, and nobody MP's from Yukon or Labrador are less likely to rock the boat. The Conservatives kind of go back and forth, I seem to remember Mulroney being less "dictatorial" as, say, Harper was in his later ministries. A good book on this is by Donald Savoie, Governing from the Centre.
As for Poilievre, I'm not as convinced as many that he'll effect the change that's needed. Something about him doesn't sit right with me.
Gretchen Newsom? The first and last names of two of our most awful governors? You can't make this sh!t up.
This episode reminds me of the time, I can't remember the details, about the guy who made some kind of scientific discovery and some feminists raked him over the coals because he was wearing a shirt with graphics of attractive women. I think it turned out that a female friend of his made the shirt.
And it preceded the DPRK’s sobbing confession from Otto Warmbier (and his murder) by 3 years. Leave it to the North Koreans to exemplify where liberal policies inevitably lead.
Chris, if you get the notion, you should write a piece about Gavin Newsom’s war on Big Oil. While he believes regulating private industry from the top down has no consequences, and will lower gas prices, his California Air Resources Board is about to raise our gas prices by 47 cents.
The national debt was about $34.8 trillion at the end of the second quarter of 2024. The debt-to-GDP ratio was about 122% in the first quarter of 2024.17
END OF FISCAL YEAR DEBT (IN BILLIONS, ROUNDED) DEBT-TO-GDP RATIO MAJOR EVENTS BY PRESIDENTIAL TERM
1929 $17 16% Market crash
1930 $16 17% Smoot-Hawley reduced trade
1931 $17 22% Dust Bowl drought raged
1932 $20 34% Hoover raised taxes
1933 $23 40% New Deal increased GDP and debt
1934 $27 40%
1935 $29 39% Social Security
1936 $34 40% Tax hikes renewed depression
1937 $36 39% Third New Deal
1938 $37 42% Dust Bowl ended
1939 $40 51% Depression ended
1940 $43 49% FDR increased spending and raised taxes
1941 $49 44% U.S. entered WWII
1942 $72 48% Defense tripled
1943 $137 70%
1944 $201 91% Bretton Woods
1945 $259 114% WWII ended
1946 $269 119% Truman's 1st term budgets and recession
1947 $258 103% Cold War
1948 $252 92% Recession
1949 $253 93% Recession
1950 $257 86% Korean War boosted growth and debt
1951 $255 74%
1952 $259 71%
1953 $266 68% Recession when war ended
1954 $271 69% Eisenhower's budgets and Recession
1955 $274 64%
1956 $273 61%
1957 $271 57% Recession
1958 $276 58% Eisenhower's 2nd term and recession
1959 $285 55% Fed raised rates
1960 $286 54% Recession
1961 $289 52% Bay of Pigs
1962 $298 50% JFK budgets and Cuban missile crisis
1963 $306 48% U.S. aids Vietnam, JFK killed
1964 $312 46% LBJ's budgets and war on poverty
1965 $317 43% U.S. entered Vietnam War
1966 $320 40%
1967 $326 40%
1968 $348 39%
1969 $354 36% Nixon took office
1970 $371 35% Recession
1971 $398 35% Wage and price controls
1972 $427 34% Stagflation
1973 $458 33% Nixon ended gold standard and OPEC oil embargo
1974 $475 31% Watergate and budget process created
1975 $533 32% Vietnam War ended
1976 $620 33% Stagflation
1977 $699 34% Stagflation
1978 $772 33% Carter budgets and recession
1979 $827 32%
1980 $908 32% Volcker raised fed rate to 20%
1981 $998 31% Reagan tax cut
1982 $1,142 34% Reagan increased spending
1983 $1,377 37% Jobless rate 10.8%
1984 $1,572 38% Increased defense spending
1985 $1,823 41%
1986 $2,125 46% Reagan lowered taxes
1987 $2,350 48% Market crash
1988 $2,602 50% Fed raised rates
1989 $2,857 51% S&L Crisis
1990 $3,233 54% First Iraq War
1991 $3,665 58% Recession
1992 $4,065 61%
1993 $4,411 63% Omnibus Budget Act
1994 $4,693 64% Clinton budgets
1995 $4,974 64%
1996 $5,225 64% Welfare reform
1997 $5,413 63%
1998 $5,526 60% LTCM crisis and recession
1999 $5,656 58% Glass-Steagall repealed
2000 $5,674 55% Budget surplus
2001 $5,807 55% 9/11 attacks and EGTRRA
2002 $6,228 57% War on Terror
2003 $6,783 59% JGTRRA and Iraq War
2004 $7,379 60% Iraq War
2005 $7,933 61% Bankruptcy Act and Hurricane Katrina.
2006 $8,507 61% Bernanke chaired Fed
2007 $9,008 62% Bank crisis
2008 $10,025 68% Bank bailout and QE
2009 $11,910 82% Bailout cost $250B ARRA added $242B
Wow this visual is terrifying. Too bad everyone is decorating with ghosts and monsters this month. They should be hanging posters with this data instead. So so scary!
Chris, your contrasting California stories is sadly so true of the fall of what was once a stunning place of limitless horizons. Now it’s a nightmare of joyless wokeness and burdensome regulations and taxes. Their one party state government and its apparatchiks are out of control. I fled CA for Texas five years ago and while I miss the weather and topography - the politics and governance are something I gladly left behind. I’m glad Elon has made a similar move with Tesla and SpaceX. If the woman in the green pantsuit somehow finds a way to occupy the Oval Office - our entire country is headed for a demise foretold by the once great state of California. God help us.
I hear you. My time in CA during the 1960’s-70’s is something that I cherish. It’s too painful to watch the street videos of what’s it’s become today. The devolution happened so fast…
Same. I lived in the San Bernadino mountains growing up and I'll never forget seeing the space shuttle piggy backing on the 747. Went right over my head! Very cool...
You’re obviously a racist, because the Shuttles were constructed of all white tiles except for the parts using black tiles for re-entry heat. As usual the white tiles were a greater % than whites in the general population, and separately, the black tiles were relegated to handling the hardest and most deadly work. The Shuttle was a racist social construct from stem to stern. You need to repent and “do the work” for having admired ANY aspect of it!!!!!
Her rambling does sound a little like someone in 940, explaining with great authority that the flat Earth is supported by a giant tortoise and sits at the center of the universe. Anyone who disagrees will be shown the instruments. I agree, we are there.
And notice her Mean Girls delivery. Like, um, Elon is so gross, right? I mean look at him. I so need a Chai infused truffle berry caramel slurpie smoothie with a bag of dried Desenuts.
What a racket: So, let me get this straight. Us 'good 'ole apple pie Americans' go to school, strive to succeed, sacrifice for success, generate work/results/revenue, so that the federal government can then make money regulating and investigating us for that work and success we we're 'born to do'. A baked-in way to extract tax dollars out of the system(s) to pay self-fulfilling, mostly useless, overlords. While all the while brainwashing the rest of the masses with horrific nonsense, generating empty support. Got it. So? Why are we putting up with this again? I forgot.
I'm on Richard Helppie's "The Common Bridge" podcast today:
https://thecommonbridge.com/chris-bray/
Excellent point about making too much of presidential elections; Although it seems like Biden/Harris have screwed up everything they could have, in truth, they are powerless to make it much better or much worse. And four years is not near long enough for Trump to drain the swamp, especially since he'll spend half his time fighting lawfare from the entrenched progressive interests. The next three elections, 12 years, may make a difference.
Chris, I’m The Common Bridge transcript editor (so I hear them all!) and I thoroughly enjoyed your interview! (I was already subscribed to you btw 😊)
Thanks!
Very nice interview. Would like to hear more of your thoughts about the breakdown of right/left as useful categories for understanding our politics, and the use of court/country as more suitable.
Nice interview--you sound very young and optimistic-- a good thing BTW
Related:
https://x.com/DavidSHolz/status/1845885464311746669
"the rocket catch isn't just like an engineering victory, it's a cultural-spiritual one too, it stirs in us a deep yearning for science, physics and the objective truth. once you taste it, you know we must have more and this hunger itself may be the driving force of civilization."
Creative force vs obstructive force. "This hunger itself."
In the YouTube video, the timestamp didn't take. This happens on Substack from time to time, for whatever reason. You can fast-forward to 16:09 to watch Harris scold about Trump's terrifying joke-making behavior.
Why does she always sound drunk? Does she even care?
She cares about getting drunk. BIGOT!
The sad truth is that she lacks the vision and the intellect to grasp what is at stake. I keep thinking if we go any further in her preferred direction we will al.be living in less Miserables.
From your lips to God’s ear – Javert had the decency to drown himself in the end.
Too bad the libs can't "auger in" like some of the test pilots did. No plaques needed for the libs, of course, just a joyous sigh of relief.
Actually the sequel, "Even More Miserables".
Cheap shot, I know, but I think that she drinks pretty regularly. For the life of me, I don't know how she got through law school and passed the the bar.
It's pretty obvious that she never passes a bar without stopping in.
What is it with these women and their god awful ugly pantsuits? I guess they reflect the ugliness inside them. 🤢🤮
The same way obvious dimwits get through medical school and residencies. Tenacity rather than intellectual curiosity.
Did she actually pass the bar? I know some folks have been having a hard time tracking down records of her actual credentials.
Who thinks that Willie Brown was her first use of the horizontal mambo to get ahead?
Sorry, I just couldn't stand listening to any more from that woman, I've heard enough to know how disgusting and phony everything is that comes out of her mouth.
God no, could never listen to that execrable creature for even a nanosecond.....wearing noise canceling headphones for the duration....God bless for your powers of endurance!
My desperate hope is that Kamala (by whatever is the pronunciation du jour), having been tapped by Joe and then knifed by his repeated close policy embraces, will disappear from the scene in the political equivalent of the Titan implosion, her voice never to be heard again. Perhaps she might find a suitable position as a composted manure turner at the Harris Ranch near Coalinga, CA.
FWIW I see the timestamp as '1s' so you may want to manually check the link? It should end it 't=969'.
Well, crap.
Weirdly, I just tried to edit in the link ending in 969, and it once again ended up without the timestamp. Bizarre.
Sometimes it be like that.
The cringe video is odious but listen for one minute, 33 to 34 mark. Kamala says that in her four years as senator, her favorite committee was the Senate intelligence committee, where there was no partisanship, and everyone was a colleague and took their coats off. She is giving away the game in this comment as it is very telling though she proudly relates it.
As many of us have come to understand, the troubles we've experienced have been orchestrated by intelligence, with military and State Department partnership (as the planners and enforcers for the hidden wealth elites who determine the script). Anyone getting in their way, even Musk, will pay the price and be made an example of for daring to challenge the powers that be.
GOOD CATCH
I think she is starting to show what she stands for - a Christian is at the wrong rally, her administration will be very different than Joe Biden's.
"Senate intelligence committee," especially one with Commie-La on it, is another oxymoron for George Carlin's collection, like guest host and jumbo shrimp.
^^^This!^^^
Your sacrifice for our common welfare in listening to this harpy cannot go unremarked. I’m reminded of Prince Faisal’s comment to Lawrence (of Arabia) as Lawrence leaves for England: “What I owe you is beyond evaluation…”
"A culture of professional scolds is gathering more weight than the culture of action that it increasingly suffocates."
We also see this in the economy, where the 'fake' economy of government grants and "PPP"s are overtaking the actual economy of voluntary trade for goods and services.
There is something ironic about "candidate of joy" Kamala complaining that meaniehead Trump is out there telling jokes and making people laugh.
There's something insane and brittle about Kamala's JOY JOY JOY AND ALSO I DESPISE TRUMP WHO I HATE SO MUCH campaign. She's certifiable.
she's just the random rambling drunk girl at the end of the bar who should have been cut off 3 drinks ago but she has an open tab with her platinum amex so...
"Wow that lady is blasted! She's slurring her words so badly!"
"Actually she just got here, that's her first drink."
My wife was a server, trust me that happens more often than you think.
And The Lizard (very sober, very rich) should have taken her home hours ago. These bitches.
Same sentence hypocrisy, not that she or her supporters ever realize it, but it seems to be the goal. The holy grail of narrative-chanting and loyalty signaling sans anything that smacks of logic. Communists leaders always prize such people.
Yes.
“Communists leaders always prize such people.”
“Prize” in the sense that they’re the only ones allowed to survive outside the gulags. Is there ANY doubt the Democrats would impose a social credit system given half a chance? It’s the natural follow-on to censorship. With a CBDC, you’d not be able to ride mass transit, order an Über, or buy food other than bare subsistence rations. Further noncompliance gets you to a permanent Alaska “vacation” north of the Arctic Circle.
A good friend of mine knew Solzhenitsyn, who vouched for him to get a Visa to the USA. In fact a chapter in one of the Gulag archipelago books is dedicated to my friends father. My friend says similar things about communists. He says the ultimate narrative chanter/ toady was Khrushchev
all her fans are pretty miserable too. has there ever been a more slimy woman than hillary clinton? no wonder her husband chased anything in a skirt. or michele obama lecturing the DNC audience about owning more than you need and no one seems to get the irony!
there's always this petty authoritarian bossy edge.
my BF is in NYC right now working on a Broadway christmas show. one of his colleagues has a political sticker on her road box- "Harris/Walz- mind your own damn business!" and below that "I'm Talking!"
another colleague posts on Facebook "I'm with her and I'll say it to your face!"
i've still got my RFKjr signs in my front yard. i figure most people can take that an indication that i'm voting for Trump. but those signs just say "Kennedy for President." they don't say "Kennedy for President and you can fuck yourself!"
you hear newscasters say things like "well, he's despicable and all his followers are despicable too." or you see on Facebook "If you're thining of voting for Trump, you are morally inferior and that's that."
the people calling for tolerance, diversity, acceptance, kindness and justice were cheering when unvaccinated people died, advocating for them to be tossed in camps, disowning their relatives. they've moved on to cheering when the "courts" stretch the laws so they can "get" Trump. "i can't wait until they seize his properties!!!" i ask "will you be ok when they seize yours?"
these people have lost the joy and the humor. they can't laugh at themselves or at anything for that matter
“has there ever been a more slimy woman than hillary clinton?”
Detest her I do, but I must raise a point in her defense:
At the Democratic debate on 4/26/07, Brian Williams of NBC asked the candidates what they’d do if another 9/11 happened on their watch. Obama gave a typical long-winded answer about making sure first responders have all the supplies they need (in his role as Stock-boy in Chief). But Clinton to her credit, responded “I think a president must move as swiftly as is prudent to retaliate.”
17 years later, this still sticks with me, if only because it’s Clinton’s sole redeeming feature.
Not to mention another 4.5 billion in forgivable student loans this past week Then there’s the $400 million Lloyd Austin just hand delivered to the non president of Ukraine. We can’t take much more.
Yeah, but *they* can, and will, take everything we have.
And the cretins who have made it their goal in life to loot the nation to feather their own nests will give it to them.
i think we need to start a Don't Pay Your Taxes movement
Reminder: As the official ghost president so chillingly pointed out, *they* have the F-15's.
i must have missed that one. but yes, the government wants to control your right to arm yourself so they can have a monopoly on violence
A movement to cut off the government’s source of actual cash will draw a response faster and more severe even than an armed rebellion. Refusing to pay your own taxes draws a strong response, but RECRUITING people to such a cause brings Hellfire and Brimstone virtually via parachute. The conspiracy charge gets you locked under the jail without bail.
"Strength through Joy" Hmmm.... where have I heard that before?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strength_Through_Joy
Related: Joy Division.
When there are no merit-based goals, the medal goes to the loudest tribal signaler.
I have seen this on in many the corporate office or especially in academia. This is the logical (!?) extension of wokeness unchecked.
Let's hope it is the last gasp.
The other problem is these morons have bankrupted us.
That is a very significant problem.
… and it was done deliberately. It’s always a part of the steps to revolution playbook.
I hope that someday soon all the agencies report to the Department of Government Efficiency
Except the ones that NO LONGER EXIST
Oh I think determining the optimum size for government is like determining how much insurance to buy. You simply reduce it to the lowest possible number, the divide it in half a dozen more times and there you are. There is a certain size, to your point, very close to 0, that is optimum.
Agreed. It's the only way to smash the Blob. Get the feck rid of all the unelected pricks and the BS alphabet agencies--100%--pouf--gone! Be gone with the retards, morons, bloated bastards--once and for all.
As for The Cackling Retarded Moron, be done with her, too. The trash bin is far too nice for the likes of that garbage!
I cannot watch one more second of The Cackling Retarded Moron.
Yes, yes, and yes. This subtraction would be a great start...though I cannot believe it will actually happen. Most likely it does not or it is some neutered version that takes a few million off the books. But we can hope and dream about the glorious reduction.
…hopefully a LOT of those!
That was the original purpose of the “Office of Management & Budget” in 1970, to review regulations to ensure compliance with Administration goals as well as to control costs. It has almost entirely failed in its objectives.
As far as I can discern, virtually ALL government initiatives/programs are abject failures.
(Even with the tendency, in recent decades, to carefully exclude ANY meaningful performance metrics from the terms of reference.)
The CCC is a clown show. If you want to build a house within the coastal zone, permitting takes a very long time. It’s 3-4 years now to permit a new build between the municipality and CCC I’m told. I did an addition on a house about 10 years ago and there was a big deal made about some drainage thing I had to build to prevent runoff and flooding and death and destruction from my 1/4 acre. I can’t remember the term of art for the drainage feature, but it was some rocks in the dirt basically about 15 -30 feet long and 7 feet wide. It held up the certificate of occupancy for quite a time until the doofuses from the city had it pointed out to them that based on the design they approved, it couldn’t actually be built without damaging existing structure and the law said that they couldn’t force me to demolish existing structures to build it. So in the end they just said “f-k it” after months and multiple revisions and gnashing of teeth. I had previously pointed that since we were adding square footage to a house there would be less drainage than there was prior when that area was just landscaping and there was no special drain there before, and that the whole thing was dumb, but dumb is never a reason not to do something in a government it turns out. I know - first world problem, who cares. But the same power hungry petty bureaucrat desk jockeys just told the best entrepreneur in the world to buzz off and take his geometrically growing enterprise with him, with all the obvious attendant second order economic effects. How you do one thing is how you do everything.
I think part of that problem is the same as it is here: the older generation of regulators/inspectors where men with the actual technical know-how in their respective field.
From the early 1990s (here) the ever-increasing percentage of people without technical skills but with the requisite degrees in courses relevant to admin-jobs has caused the current situation where the decision maker and inspector can only follow protocol.
And a protocol can never cover the specifics on the ground, only provide a general rule to follow /for someone who has the technical know-how to adapt to conditions on the spot/.
I am planning and budgeting for a compost-toilet, something the county doesn't like people having since it means they can't charge inspection and pumping fees for the blackwater catch-well. The rules are written by competent people though, and are meant to prevent seepage of sewer-water into the groundwater - eminently reasonable. Here's the funny part:
I wrote the poor clerk at county, asking this:
"If me and the wife do our business behind a bush, that's a violation, right? Because it eventually seeps into the aquifer?"
"Yes"
"But what about our dogs? They do their business all over the lot. Every day, several times over."
"But that's not a problem."
"Do you mean to say that dog poop and piss don't seep into the aquifer?"
"...?"
You see where this is going. The poor clerk couldn't understand that if I can have X number of dogs who do their business three times a day on the same acreage, or if two humans do it, to the ground and the ground water it's all the same. Crap is crap and piss is piss and it all filters down in different ways.
Whereas a friend of mine who I work with at the church charity is a retired water/sewer-technician just laughed out loud and slapped the table when I told him this.
Anyway, my advice freely given (you get what you pay for, eh?):
Treat it (bureaucrazy) the way you do a strategic target in your line of business, rather than an obstacle: that way, it becomes easier to see the rules®s as points of leverage rather than obstacles.
(Also it helps - me at least - to keep the BP down.)
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The CCC is a well-intentioned and incompetent joke.
Are you sure about the "well-intentioned", Mark?
Barbra Streisand knows all about CCC
🤣
Tanto , so true
On a positive note, thank goodness we have federalism. Our system allows for localized approaches and experimentation. Yes, California was once the land of opportunity, creativity and optimism; now it is an ossified museum exhibit with great weather and beautiful scenery. There are still a lot of ambitious people in California, but increasingly they are choosing to locate in other, more dynamic states. Thank you, Founders, for crafting this wonderfully flexible US system.
Also one of the things keeping Canada from totally imploding. For as much as everyone in Ottawa and Toronto is despised in the rest of the country, provinces like Alberta, Saskatchewan and - especially - Quebec have enough elbow room in our federal system to tell Justin to get fucked.
Too bad foreigners can’t contribute to Poilievre’s campaign. Why is it that liberals in both our countries are so much more effective (i.e., “ruthless”) than conservatives in controlling back benchers?
Since Pierre Trudeau the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) has become more and more centralized to the point where it's really the unelected executive of the country. The Liberal party historically has been much more docile in that sense, especially during the Chretien years, given that it sees itself as Canada's Natural Governing Party, and nobody MP's from Yukon or Labrador are less likely to rock the boat. The Conservatives kind of go back and forth, I seem to remember Mulroney being less "dictatorial" as, say, Harper was in his later ministries. A good book on this is by Donald Savoie, Governing from the Centre.
As for Poilievre, I'm not as convinced as many that he'll effect the change that's needed. Something about him doesn't sit right with me.
Gretchen Newsom? The first and last names of two of our most awful governors? You can't make this sh!t up.
This episode reminds me of the time, I can't remember the details, about the guy who made some kind of scientific discovery and some feminists raked him over the coals because he was wearing a shirt with graphics of attractive women. I think it turned out that a female friend of his made the shirt.
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/nov/14/rosetta-comet-dr-matt-taylor-apology-sexist-shirt
Your memory, and research skills, continue to amaze me, Chris.
Hard to forget that shirt thing. It was a preview.
And it preceded the DPRK’s sobbing confession from Otto Warmbier (and his murder) by 3 years. Leave it to the North Koreans to exemplify where liberal policies inevitably lead.
Chris, if you get the notion, you should write a piece about Gavin Newsom’s war on Big Oil. While he believes regulating private industry from the top down has no consequences, and will lower gas prices, his California Air Resources Board is about to raise our gas prices by 47 cents.
I really long for the days of Chuck Yeager.
With the first refinery closure already announced.
"I really long for the days of Chuck Yeager"
You mean when gas was 20 CENTS per gallon?
it could be if brandon hadn't stopped the drilling and the pipeline
We can't afford all of the parasites. $2 trillion deficit spending for just this year, despite excellent tax revenue intake.
The national debt was about $34.8 trillion at the end of the second quarter of 2024. The debt-to-GDP ratio was about 122% in the first quarter of 2024.17
END OF FISCAL YEAR DEBT (IN BILLIONS, ROUNDED) DEBT-TO-GDP RATIO MAJOR EVENTS BY PRESIDENTIAL TERM
1929 $17 16% Market crash
1930 $16 17% Smoot-Hawley reduced trade
1931 $17 22% Dust Bowl drought raged
1932 $20 34% Hoover raised taxes
1933 $23 40% New Deal increased GDP and debt
1934 $27 40%
1935 $29 39% Social Security
1936 $34 40% Tax hikes renewed depression
1937 $36 39% Third New Deal
1938 $37 42% Dust Bowl ended
1939 $40 51% Depression ended
1940 $43 49% FDR increased spending and raised taxes
1941 $49 44% U.S. entered WWII
1942 $72 48% Defense tripled
1943 $137 70%
1944 $201 91% Bretton Woods
1945 $259 114% WWII ended
1946 $269 119% Truman's 1st term budgets and recession
1947 $258 103% Cold War
1948 $252 92% Recession
1949 $253 93% Recession
1950 $257 86% Korean War boosted growth and debt
1951 $255 74%
1952 $259 71%
1953 $266 68% Recession when war ended
1954 $271 69% Eisenhower's budgets and Recession
1955 $274 64%
1956 $273 61%
1957 $271 57% Recession
1958 $276 58% Eisenhower's 2nd term and recession
1959 $285 55% Fed raised rates
1960 $286 54% Recession
1961 $289 52% Bay of Pigs
1962 $298 50% JFK budgets and Cuban missile crisis
1963 $306 48% U.S. aids Vietnam, JFK killed
1964 $312 46% LBJ's budgets and war on poverty
1965 $317 43% U.S. entered Vietnam War
1966 $320 40%
1967 $326 40%
1968 $348 39%
1969 $354 36% Nixon took office
1970 $371 35% Recession
1971 $398 35% Wage and price controls
1972 $427 34% Stagflation
1973 $458 33% Nixon ended gold standard and OPEC oil embargo
1974 $475 31% Watergate and budget process created
1975 $533 32% Vietnam War ended
1976 $620 33% Stagflation
1977 $699 34% Stagflation
1978 $772 33% Carter budgets and recession
1979 $827 32%
1980 $908 32% Volcker raised fed rate to 20%
1981 $998 31% Reagan tax cut
1982 $1,142 34% Reagan increased spending
1983 $1,377 37% Jobless rate 10.8%
1984 $1,572 38% Increased defense spending
1985 $1,823 41%
1986 $2,125 46% Reagan lowered taxes
1987 $2,350 48% Market crash
1988 $2,602 50% Fed raised rates
1989 $2,857 51% S&L Crisis
1990 $3,233 54% First Iraq War
1991 $3,665 58% Recession
1992 $4,065 61%
1993 $4,411 63% Omnibus Budget Act
1994 $4,693 64% Clinton budgets
1995 $4,974 64%
1996 $5,225 64% Welfare reform
1997 $5,413 63%
1998 $5,526 60% LTCM crisis and recession
1999 $5,656 58% Glass-Steagall repealed
2000 $5,674 55% Budget surplus
2001 $5,807 55% 9/11 attacks and EGTRRA
2002 $6,228 57% War on Terror
2003 $6,783 59% JGTRRA and Iraq War
2004 $7,379 60% Iraq War
2005 $7,933 61% Bankruptcy Act and Hurricane Katrina.
2006 $8,507 61% Bernanke chaired Fed
2007 $9,008 62% Bank crisis
2008 $10,025 68% Bank bailout and QE
2009 $11,910 82% Bailout cost $250B ARRA added $242B
2010 $13,562 90% ARRA added $400B, payroll tax holiday ended, Obama Tax cuts, ACA, Simpson-Bowles
2011 $14,790 95% Debt crisis, recession and tax cuts reduced revenue
2012 $16,066 99% Fiscal cliff
2013 $16,738 99% Sequester, government shutdown
2014 $17,824 101% QE ended, debt ceiling crisis
2015 $18,151 100% Oil prices fell
2016 $19,573 105% Brexit
2017 $20,245 104% Congress raised the debt ceiling
2018 $21,516 105% Trump tax cuts
2019 $22,719 107% Trade wars
2020 $27,748 129% COVID-19 and 2020 recession
2021 $29,617 124% COVID-19 and American Rescue Plan Act
2022 $31,420 119% Inflation Reduction Act and student loan forgiveness
2023 $34,001 122%
Wow this visual is terrifying. Too bad everyone is decorating with ghosts and monsters this month. They should be hanging posters with this data instead. So so scary!
Chris, your contrasting California stories is sadly so true of the fall of what was once a stunning place of limitless horizons. Now it’s a nightmare of joyless wokeness and burdensome regulations and taxes. Their one party state government and its apparatchiks are out of control. I fled CA for Texas five years ago and while I miss the weather and topography - the politics and governance are something I gladly left behind. I’m glad Elon has made a similar move with Tesla and SpaceX. If the woman in the green pantsuit somehow finds a way to occupy the Oval Office - our entire country is headed for a demise foretold by the once great state of California. God help us.
I hear you. My time in CA during the 1960’s-70’s is something that I cherish. It’s too painful to watch the street videos of what’s it’s become today. The devolution happened so fast…
I used to watch the space shuttle fly over my house on its descent to Edward’s AFB. How far the Golden State has fallen.
Same. I lived in the San Bernadino mountains growing up and I'll never forget seeing the space shuttle piggy backing on the 747. Went right over my head! Very cool...
You’re obviously a racist, because the Shuttles were constructed of all white tiles except for the parts using black tiles for re-entry heat. As usual the white tiles were a greater % than whites in the general population, and separately, the black tiles were relegated to handling the hardest and most deadly work. The Shuttle was a racist social construct from stem to stern. You need to repent and “do the work” for having admired ANY aspect of it!!!!!
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Me too.
You are here.
This is actually darker than the dark ages.
Her rambling does sound a little like someone in 940, explaining with great authority that the flat Earth is supported by a giant tortoise and sits at the center of the universe. Anyone who disagrees will be shown the instruments. I agree, we are there.
And notice her Mean Girls delivery. Like, um, Elon is so gross, right? I mean look at him. I so need a Chai infused truffle berry caramel slurpie smoothie with a bag of dried Desenuts.
What a racket: So, let me get this straight. Us 'good 'ole apple pie Americans' go to school, strive to succeed, sacrifice for success, generate work/results/revenue, so that the federal government can then make money regulating and investigating us for that work and success we we're 'born to do'. A baked-in way to extract tax dollars out of the system(s) to pay self-fulfilling, mostly useless, overlords. While all the while brainwashing the rest of the masses with horrific nonsense, generating empty support. Got it. So? Why are we putting up with this again? I forgot.
Because those who agree with us but are a little older will rat on bus the first instant any one tries anything because it's a bad look.