Posted on 10/21/2014 6:23:16 AM PDT by Whenifhow
... Though it’s a bedrock American principle that citizens can steer their own government by electing new officials, Glennon suggests that in practice, much of our government no longer works that way. In a new book, “National Security and Double Government,” he catalogs the ways that the defense and national security apparatus is effectively self-governing, with virtually no accountability, transparency, or checks and balances of any kind. He uses the term “double government”: There’s the one we elect, and then there’s the one behind it, steering huge swaths of policy almost unchecked. Elected officials end up serving as mere cover for the real decisions made by the bureaucracy.
Snip
IDEAS: Do we have any hope of fixing the problem?
GLENNON: The ultimate problem is the pervasive political ignorance on the part of the American people. And indifference to the threat that is emerging from these concealed institutions. That is where the energy for reform has to come from: the American people. Not from government. Government is very much the problem here. The people have to take the bull by the horns. And that’s a very difficult thing to do, because the ignorance is in many ways rational. There is very little profit to be had in learning about, and being active about, problems that you can’t affect, policies that you can’t change.
(Excerpt) Read more at bostonglobe.com ...
Because the last conservative president was Reagan?
Seriously, the Bushes are NWO-types; ask yourself if NWO is compatible with conservative principles.
Quite frankly, I don’t think they are dramatically worse. I think they’ve been terrible.
Now before you scream at me, I am not saying there are not some really bad things that occurred under ODimwit (gay “marriage” etc comes to the top of that list). But as a practical matter, the economy has favored the few for a long time. Despite some “the sky is falling” screaming (taking our guns comes to mind) nothing has changed.
We are inundated with ODimwit scandals and conspiracy theories (yes. Some are real and bad) but they’ve been there with POTUS’ prior to him.
War? Been there done that. Middle East falling apart? Been there done that. Deficit? Ask Mr. “Decifits Don’t Matter Cheney”. He’ll tell ya “been there done that”.
Odimwit care? Meh. The GOP isn’t going to do anything about it and didn’t really. Health care availability has always been sketchy in America. That didn’t really change that much. The IRS involvement? Nixon made sicking the IRS on enemies a “thing”.
Quite frankly, but for a handful of social issues, there really isn’t much change under the Dips**t. The biggest problem for me is he’s just another (regardless of Party) just stands in the way of returning America to greatness.
Each side of the equation gets fed the same “the other side is Satan” meme. Again, not saying some aren’t, but I see it as no coincidence that Lib and Con pundits say, essentially, the same thing about the other side.
And then there is our “Conservative” SCOTUS backing Police State actions in their 4th Amendment decisions. Then along comes Citizens United and Hobby Lobby that are packaged as Conservative victories with Hobby Lobby being sold as a victory for Religious Freedom. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Citizens United sold our Republic to billionaires on both “sides”. Their supposed political beliefs are merely a construct to keep us in line until we can truly do nothing. Hobby Lobby? I’ve said it before and I will say it again .. I GUARANTEE that it will be used against we Christians when it becomes convenient to do so.
Remember under Bush how we were so excited that we, the Religious Right (for lack of a better term) were so excited that we would be heard? We weren’t. We weren’ herd on much and Bush went on a spending budget busting spree that would even make a LibTard blush.
So here we are with them hoping we’ll be myopic. Don’t give that to them.
In short, as I have said over and over again, the problem isn’t Government. The problem is that we don’t have a Conservative Government. Privatization is just handing the oligarchs what they have prayed for from the beginning.
Now I don’t agree that voting doesn’t matter. I do agree that falling in line and voting as told doesn’t matter. We better make our voices hear by selectively voting to show the GOPe we have a plan and know what is up ... before it is too late.
I should have put conservative in quotes. I agree that he is not a conservative. That was my premise.
Recommended first acts by President Cruz:
****
A conservative president would also have to revamp education.
Because Obama is putty in the masters' hands. He appoints who they designate, from his WH staff to justices and agency heads. I suspect that Obama's predecessors thought slightly more independently.
Now I don’t agree that voting doesn’t matter. I do agree that falling in line and voting as told doesn’t matter. We better make our voices hear by selectively voting to show the GOPe we have a plan and know what is up ... before it is too late.
********
I agree with this, although the video of the guy stuffing the ballot box shows that integrity of the election does matter.
Interesting book. Double Government is enabled by a ruling class in Congress that prefers things this way, in part so they can focus on maintaining their power base and lining their pockets.
Ah, then we’re on the same page.
We won’t change our evil ways, voluntarily. We’ll be forced to. Whether we will survive the process is another thing.
Those who understand how to ‘create value’ were woken up to the voters who elected Obama and then RE elected him. The reality that the ‘deal’ we had which implied that the producers would continue to produce and the takers wouldn’t take more than allowed was broken at that point.
2009 was a paradigm shift in our national structure. Many see the writing on the wall and are preparing accordingly.
The only reason such a secret and not so secret government exists behind the scenes is because the government has assumed far too much unconstitutional authority.
When the federal government is cut back in an orderly fashion, the shadow government will proportionately cease to exist.
For example, the US Intelligence Community. It is composed of 17 different major agencies. in 2010 there were 1,271 government organizations and 1,931 private companies in 10,000 locations in the United States that are working on counterterrorism, homeland security, and intelligence, and that the intelligence community as a whole includes 854,000 people holding top-secret clearances.
Private contractors make up 29% of their workforce in the U.S. intelligence community and cost half of their personnel budgets.
Importantly, when looking at size and budget reductions, the vast majority should involve *domestic* intelligence gathering in the US, basically the US spying on each and every one of its citizens, from a hundred different directions.
The rationale for massive cutbacks is that 99.999999999% of everything they do is waste. Insanely expensive waste. Insanely expensive that violates the constitution, common sense, and any conceivable real purpose waste.
The issue may be forced by an economic collapse, but cuts during one of those fall on the just and unjust alike. So it is far better to approach things rationally, when as a nation we aren’t yet falling apart.
The idea is that we should cut back not because we have to, but because waste, mismanagement, and uselessness should not be a part of an efficient government doing its job.
I’ve harped on this forever, and therefore am very happy to see this article posted.
I didn’t read the entire article as I have to leave now, but what I read is right on the mark.
We have to get rid of the departments of the Left. The departments they have legislated into existence, and packed the bureaucracies that run those departments with their own loyalists, and then to ensure their control over our government the Leftists unionized them all.
Try running a government of the people, for the people with that sort of obstacle in the way. The obstacles in the way of our government are in fact intentional by the Left, and must be removed. If we must revolt the revolution should put that aspect of D.C. square in the crosshairs.
“So, why are things DRAMATICALLY WORSE under Obama?”
The Shadow Govt and Obama have the same objective, absolute power.
It’s republicans that actually want to decrease govt that have to fight against the Shadow Govt.
Liberals that want to increase govt control over people and the shadow govt are one and the same.
The IRS targeting the TEA Party as a way of getting the names of their political enemies is an example of the Shadow Govt at work.
Tufts, formerly a fine institution, has gone Marxist. The author fits right in.
Let’s test this theory when Cruz gets in.
At least part of the distance between a campaigning Obama and a pResident Obama is that the former had little if any knowledge of the real world and its threats, both in the realms of defense, trade, and collateral international relationships.
I concur that the bureaucracy limits degrees of change, but it can and should be done where necessary. Obama is pressing change incrementally, but only in the areas where he applies himself, e.g. immigration, healthcare, gay issues, selective enforcement of law, and dissolution of states rights via fiscal extortion. He and his attorney general have forced wedges in the gray areas of our laws, redefined those laws to suit themselves, and Congress is too timid to take much issue with this usurpation of their constitutional authority. Do you really think that the Department of Defense would have bent over on the gay issue had not the pResident been personally pushing the issue so vehemently? Mr. Obama has clearly indicated that he has a penchant to be risk adverse. Therefore, he pushes the issues where he directly controls the players and can feel safe that those individuals will acquiesce to him.
[ Recommended first acts by President Cruz:
1) Repeal all previous Presidential Orders.
2) Fire and replace with solid conservatives every political position in government. Personnel is policy.
3) Ask each Cabinet Secretary to analyze their Department and come with a list of spending and projects to stop. Stop the spending, and make Congress sue the President to continue to implement stupid policy.
4) Pull every lever of government ever pulled by Liberals, but pull it harder for conservatism. When challenged, point to liberal manipulation, and retort that you are just doing what they do.
5) Judges.
6) Attack the priority list he published yesterday with legislation and presidential action.
President Cruz may only have 4 years. So he has to act fast to turn the country around. Even if he loses after 4 years, the great effects of hard right change will be long lasting. ]
He better LIVE in a Bunker should he do these things....
Just told someone that this morning!!! It doesn’t matter, a corrupt cadre of people are running the country to their benefit. NOTHING is going to change for the better until the people turn back to God.
Just told someone that this morning!!! It doesn’t matter, a corrupt cadre of people are running the country to their benefit. NOTHING is going to change for the better until the people turn back to God.
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