Assassination Plot on President W. Bush

[3catcircus]

Greetings!

Term Limits *seem* like they would be a solution--but that feeling just doesn't line up with the realities of how political dynamics work. On one hand, it does provide some mitigation for bad politicians or do nothing leaders--but it also hamstrings actually good political leaders, because of how the time is spent, negotiating, getting to know people, how group A or group B works, and so on. It takes a term just to get plugged in. Then you spend the next term fighting to make stuff happen, and then there's the door.

Thus, in the end, a system is strengthened where most of the politicians are either terrible or at best, well-intentioned, but still largely ineffective.

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

So, if they were to go and vote for a few weeks on legislation and then go back home to they're normal businesses and jobs, fine stay elected for a few turns. But, no, these cocksuckers who can't do anything else have decided to be leeches on the public's dime.

[Ghostmaker]

Greetings!

Term Limits *seem* like they would be a solution--but that feeling just doesn't line up with the realities of how political dynamics work. On one hand, it does provide some mitigation for bad politicians or do nothing leaders--but it also hamstrings actually good political leaders, because of how the time is spent, negotiating, getting to know people, how group A or group B works, and so on. It takes a term just to get plugged in. Then you spend the next term fighting to make stuff happen, and then there's the door.

Thus, in the end, a system is strengthened where most of the politicians are either terrible or at best, well-intentioned, but still largely ineffective.

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

That's not a bug, it's a feature.

I don't WANT political leaders to have the time to network or hobnob. Ideally, I really want their power limited as much as possible.

[Chris24601]

What really needs term limits are the permanent bureaucracy UNDER the elected and appointed officials.

A prime example is the Senior Executive Service... a load of unelected and basically unfireable wonks who all went to the same schools and married into the same circles with their own agendas who sit just under the Cabinet officials and just do whatever they want regardless of what the official nominated and confirmed to lead the department wants done... because they can't be fired without years of paperwork that more or less resets every time the person at the top is switched out every 2-4 years.

All because some eggheads decided that would be less corrupt than the spoils system where incoming administrations could clean house from top to bottom and fill positions with people who want to do what the person elected by the people wants done.

[Ghostmaker]

What really needs term limits are the permanent bureaucracy UNDER the elected and appointed officials.

A prime example is the Senior Executive Service... a load of unelected and basically unfireable wonks who all went to the same schools and married into the same circles with their own agendas who sit just under the Cabinet officials and just do whatever they want regardless of what the official nominated and confirmed to lead the department wants done... because they can't be fired without years of paperwork that more or less resets every time the person at the top is switched out every 2-4 years.

All because some eggheads decided that would be less corrupt than the spoils system where incoming administrations could clean house from top to bottom and fill positions with people who want to do what the person elected by the people wants done.

Quite true. As I've remarked before, 'I can vote out my Senator, but what do I do about unelected bureaucrat #74?'.

[Wrath of God]

Which would be fine, if actual politician in power could just strangle his buerocrates on a whim like Osman Sultan.

[3catcircus]

What really needs term limits are the permanent bureaucracy UNDER the elected and appointed officials.

A prime example is the Senior Executive Service... a load of unelected and basically unfireable wonks who all went to the same schools and married into the same circles with their own agendas who sit just under the Cabinet officials and just do whatever they want regardless of what the official nominated and confirmed to lead the department wants done... because they can't be fired without years of paperwork that more or less resets every time the person at the top is switched out every 2-4 years.

All because some eggheads decided that would be less corrupt than the spoils system where incoming administrations could clean house from top to bottom and fill positions with people who want to do what the person elected by the people wants done.

Quite true. As I've remarked before, 'I can vote out my Senator, but what do I do about unelected bureaucrat #74?'.

So here's the deal.  *Some* SES are competent. Some career civil servants are competent. We need to keep those who are. The problem is most aren't.  Or to put it another way, as a highly competent govvie I work with stated in regards to everyone else in his unit, "I work with retards and morons."

Those in government below the level of SES who are competent know they're competent and they generally have chosen to stay in that form of employment because it has less responsibility for the same pay and perks as a job in industry, while allowing them the ability to work their side hustle...

Really what would be ideal is to shuffle most federal positions amongst different agencies every election cycle.  An SES leader or a financial analyst or electrical engineer or custodial artist working at DoJ should be able to do the same type of work at DoD, FEMA, or GSA, and it prevents entrenched incompetence from taking root.

[Shasarak]

Everything follows Price's law (50% of the work is done by the square root of the total number of people who participate in the work)

So the bigger the work force then inherently the less efficient it is.

Unfortunately Government is too big to fail.

[Mistwell]

  That's bullshit.  The USA knew damn well he did not have nukes, and they knew damn well that was what they implied by saying WMDs.   The USA told everyone else what to believe and since the war machine was cranked to 11 and lots of people saw zero need to use any critical thinking and just kill someone after a group of dudes on a terror watch list getting flying lessons managed to pull the hijack of the century and kill thousands, the people wanted blood.  I do not think anyone believed that intel.  They knew someone had to pay, and Saddam had the really bad fortune of being on the list, and being a shitload easier to get to than Osama was.

All the evidence suggests they did not know damn well. As there was evidence of chemical weapons, and of nuclear material and centrifuges. MANY foreign intelligence agencies confirmed this independently. And most of it was because they had good evidence that Saddam was telling his closest advisers that they did, and hearing from them back that he did. Everyone just assumed Saddam knew what he had, and that his advisers were not lying to him about this stuff. That, in the end, was the biggest mistake.

[Mistwell]

And now we have a man arrested attempting to assassinate Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh.

[3catcircus]

And now we have a man arrested attempting to assassinate Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh.

He was only doing what Chuck Schumer and AOC encouraged... What's the big deal?  Oh, you mean that the law should apply equally to everyone regardless of their political leaning??  Well that message should have been conveyed to Democrats loud and clear instead of the polite right allowing them to be burger king's and "have it their way."

[oggsmash]

  What I need to know...is did the would be assassin have his LGBTQ+ support pin on?  That seems to be the big transgression right now, whether you are a Christian baseball player or a Muslim Esports star, it seems you better understand there is now one faith above the others.

[Shasarak]

And now we have a man arrested attempting to assassinate Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh.

He was only doing what Chuck Schumer and AOC encouraged... What's the big deal?

"Will no one rid me of this troublesome Priest?"

[Pat]

What I want to know is when they're going to imprison without hope of release the Kavanaugh and Gorusch insurrectionists who attempt to overthrow the legitimate processes of government and besieged the heads of one of one of the branches of the federal government, when they're going to throw the book at the insurrectionists by charging them with every vaguely applicable charge in the book, when they're going to strip away the committee positions of all the congressmonsters who didn't quickly and harshly denounce the insurrectionists, when they're going to start filing motions to bar all those politicians from being elected against under the grounds they took up arms against the state, when they're going to hold a prime-time hearing to rake over the coals any politicians and social media influencers who aren't on the side of Kavanaugh and Gorush, when they're going to use that as an excuse to lock down the capitol and throw up security precautions designed to keep the dirty public from the sacred halls where only the noble elites are allowed to tread, when they'll perform purity tests on the military and purge the wrong-thinkers, when they're going to give the pet police force of the Speaker the power to investigate anyone anywhere who is politically inconvenient, and when they're going to get the media to roundly denounce it at every possible opportunity for years on end using the most extreme language and metaphors possible, like comparing it to Pearl Harbor and the Civil War.

When?

[Shasarak]

We are at Now Now

[3catcircus]

What I want to know is when they're going to imprison without hope of release the Kavanaugh and Gorusch insurrectionists who attempt to overthrow the legitimate processes of government and besieged the heads of one of one of the branches of the federal government, when they're going to throw the book at the insurrectionists by charging them with every vaguely applicable charge in the book, when they're going to strip away the committee positions of all the congressmonsters who didn't quickly and harshly denounce the insurrectionists, when they're going to start filing motions to bar all those politicians from being elected against under the grounds they took up arms against the state, when they're going to hold a prime-time hearing to rake over the coals any politicians and social media influencers who aren't on the side of Kavanaugh and Gorush, when they're going to use that as an excuse to lock down the capitol and throw up security precautions designed to keep the dirty public from the sacred halls where only the noble elites are allowed to tread, when they'll perform purity tests on the military and purge the wrong-thinkers, when they're going to give the pet police force of the Speaker the power to investigate anyone anywhere who is politically inconvenient, and when they're going to get the media to roundly denounce it at every possible opportunity for years on end using the most extreme language and metaphors possible, like comparing it to Pearl Harbor and the Civil War.

When?

Again, I point back to the duel to solve this. Cannons at ten paces would shut up the most ardent leftist...