"Knocking On Heaven's Door" (opens in separate window)

who elected you boss?

friday, august 23rd, 2024

You might well wonder: how does the Democratic Party rank and file sustain such fervor for the wrecking crew of Harris & Walz conjured up with zero input from the Party’s demos? Just plopped onstage as by the old MGM studio heads casting a pair of iffy contract players in a “B” movie musical called Our Pronouns Are Cash and Carry.

[FULL TITLE: "Who Elected YOU Boss of This Outfit?"]

So far, Harris and Walz levitate in fake polls on gusts of idiot wind from the Party’s unofficial public relations team of the The New York Times / MSNBC / CNN / NPR media matrix. But it’s already obvious that Veep Kamala Harris’ brain is just a laugh generator triggered by anything that sounds like an idea from the material world: the economy? Hee-haw. . . Ukraine? Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha. . . The border? Tee-hee. . . Transitioning minor children? Yuk-yuk-yukity-yuk. . . The Middle East? Cackle cackle. . . .

You are well aware, I’m sure, that the veep has yet to be exposed to a single unscripted interchange with anyone outside her promotional circle. It’s been kind of a neat trick to behold, like watching a barking terrier walk around the stage on its hind legs — but after a while the audience might be thinking, What else can you show me?

You must not suppose this liminal moment in history between the defenestration of “Joe Biden” and the apparent selection of Harris & Walz is anything but a transient psychotic episode in American politics. The tell is that nobody in the Dem fold is inquiring as to how it happened, and especially who is behind it. Has the Dem Party become just Speaker emeritus Nancy Pelosi’s personal mafia? It appears that she was the one who delivered the black spot to “JB.” Do Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries even matter in that supposed hierarchy, or is Mrs. Pelosi sole proprietor of the org now?

There must be a few unfettered souls among the Dem delegates who detect that, without the smoke and mirrors of the media matrix, Harris & Walz can’t possibly make the case for getting elected honestly. And the odds of successfully rigging another national election seem to be on-the-fade, too, with such obvious pranks as registering 371 illegal aliens (non-citizens) to vote using an address that turns out to be a Walmart parking lot. Yesterday, Governor Glenn Youngkin of Virginia signed an excutive order requiring paper ballots and voter ID along with other new regs. Is a trend underway among the states to clean up their acts?

The so far railroaded national Dem delegates have ten more days to watch the Harris / Walz tag-team get vivisected on “X”, which, like it or not, has become the sole open conduit for news and commentary in a nation ruled by a psychopathocracy. You can say that because the policies they promote are obviously inimical to our country’s well being — open borders, harassment, arrest and censorship of political opponents, the pointless Ukraine war, sexual mutilation of children, mass digital surveillance, medical quackery, and a policy of lying about absolutely all of it. Many still recognize insanity when they see it in action. These matters are not defensible and, deep down, they must know it, and maybe enough of the delegates will decide to do something about it — like revolt against the candidates foisted on them.

One possible result, of course, is that such a revolt will rip the party to shreds. You can easily imagine chaos in the streets of Chicago among the disaffected delegates and the Antifa shock troops called forth to punish them. Chaos for its own sake is highly valued by so-called “progressives” looking to progressively destroy the entire armature of civilized life in order to create out of the ashes a nirvana of sadomasochistic persecution and punishment — their Hieronymus Bosch Wokester utopia.

I’m guessing that there will be untoward discoveries about, and mortifying blunders galore by, Harris & Walz these ten days ahead, and they will go into the Chicago convention like two pitiful creatures marked for sacrifice. Gawd knows what will emerge from the turbulence that ensues — but I’m still dogged by the feeling that the only plausible outcome is a giant flying reptile with a face like Hillary’s swooping into the arena on her great, flapping, leathery wings crying, Caw caw caw, I own you all now, you miserable cat ladies, incels, nose-rings, and sundry victims of hateful offense! Follow me once more into the glorious rapture of defeat! And it shall be done!

A Day In The Life.

Up at 9:30a on Friday, I went thru my finger stick to check my BSL (Blood Sugar Level) and recorded it on my Diabetes 2 chart, made coffee and held-off on breakfast, fired-up the Win-7 Pentium HP desktop to let 32 million lines of code load, had a couple smokes in the HOT garage and checked the leftover errands list. Sherry being here at around 5:15 or so, will be my treat for the day.

It was a delightfully cool 61° w/ 35% humidity outside, headed to 90°, with showers and t-storms coming over the next 2-3 days. I had some wonderful Kona "Peaberry" Coffee, then scanned the news and weather sites, and tuned into the "Chris Stigall Show LIVE" (CS Show) from 6-9a, and then the "Chris Plante Show LIVE" (CP Show) 9-12noon, and finished-up a few condo chores I'd started yesterday evening. Here's a good source of Conservative Films, from Salem News Group; some good viewing on that line-up.

Since the Summer Solstice on June 20th, the days have gotten noticeably shorter and the nights are also longer. Soon enough, Fall will arrive, Halloween, corn stalks and pumpkins will be everywhere and another Winter will be just around the corner. Tempus Fugit.

1969 Ford GT40 - $7.3 MILLION!

I had some garage cleaning projects to do, before Sherry arrived at 5:30p, so cobwebs/spider webs/dead bugs/dirt and all disappeared; I got them done and patted myself on the back. Heh. Sherry and I had a nice time together, made plans for next week, and she left round 7:30, so she'd not have to drive in the dark. I had some Cheese-Filled Ravioli for dinner, caught part of the news on NEWSMAX -- I'm past tired of Fox -- and settled-in with History's "Ancient Aliens" and Motor Trend's "Mecum Auto Auctions/ Monterey" until midnight. Lights out.

Up at 8:30a on Saturday, to a rainy (!), overcast, humid 71° morning, I made coffee, had a couple smokes, fed the squirrels (3) and Bluejays (7) in front of the garage, and scanned the weather and news headlines. With "nowhere to go, nothing to do, and no one to do it with", I lounged around all morning, made a quick Market list, had breakfast and left for Weis Market at 1p. Back by 2:30, I unloaded, had some fresh fruit for lunch, checked the news, and grabbed a 3hr snooze in the TV area's Director Chair. Weird falling asleep in that chair.

After dinner, I watched Motor Trend's "Mecum Auto Auctions/ Monterey, CA, with astronomical prices for many amazing vehicles -- world records all -- until midnight, and bagged it for the day.

Sleeping-in until almost 9a on Sunday, I made coffee, had a couple smokes in the open garage, heavily overcast, to get some fresh 75°, humid, warm air, and checked the news and weather. By the time I'd gotten the finger stick done, had breakfast and finished with news, it was almost 12noon until I got the garbage and recycle bins ready, went upstairs to get ready for the day and a couple loads of laundry. A *** FLOOD WATCH ***was posted on the local weather-related pages, but no biggie where I live. Lots of low cloud formations moving thru the area, but no rain. NYC got hammered, though.

I did 2 loads of laundry, readied the recycle bin for tomorrow p/u, had lunch and watched part of a TRASHCAR race on TV. Roundy-round crap, so I switched over to MT's "Mecum Auto Auctions" for a couple hours, to drool over such amazing vehicles. By 4, I was ready for a short nap, but slept 4hrs (!!!) Damn, that was the rest of the day, and it was almost dark when I woke at 8. After a late snack, I watched Weather Channel's "Eye of The Storm" until 12 midnight, and unplugged.

Up at 8a on Monday, a bright, sunny, 71°, humid morning, forecast to be a t-stormy, rainy day on the way up to 85°. No biggie. By 10, blue sky was only a memory, as it was overcast and the storms were on the way. After a couple smokes, with coffee in the garage, I tuned into the "CP Show LIVE", got ready for the day and left at 12:30p, for my usual Monday errand trip down south. Lots of rain and t-storm cells on the way down and back home. Fun to drive thru. Back by 3p, I had some lunch, grabbed a 2hr nap, and as the stormfront moved into the area, temps dropped 10°-15° and the rain continued. A cool front moved thru and temps dropped into the 60s.

It's not an insult,
if it's true.

Some leftover morning Kona Coffee helped me wake-up, and I scanned news headlines: Lunch Bucket Joe took $27 Million in bribes, since 2014, from Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Russia and China, and enriched his corrupt, criminal family. It only took the US House Oversight, Judiciary, Ways & Means Committee 3 years to issue the report. But better late than never, I guess. (I'm afraid that it'll go nowhere.) IMPEACH HIM, US House! Dammit! DO IT! Good riddance, Joe.

In addition to communist 'price controls' to control "price gauging" (her words), the dumbass skank wants to raise corporate taxes from 23% to 28%. Sure thing, that'll damn well help the economy. IDIOTS!

I watched the DNC Debacle for a few minutes, but switched to MotorTrend's "Iron Resurrection" for the evening. I did peek in at Lunch Bucket Joey Bidet's "farewell speech" for a few minutes, and realized that 2 weeks of rest didn't do him any good. He's still a criminal, with a corrupt, filthy family and friends cabal -- Drug addict whoring grifting bag man son...con man brother...selling us out to anyone who will pay him, grabbing/sniffing little girls -- and all the clapping seal demonKKKrats attending that shitshow, are mentally vacuous. All said and done... IT WAS A COUP on Biden. I bagged it at 12midnight; JoAnne, my cleaning lady, is in at 8:30a, so I'm getting up early.

Awake at 6a with the alarm, on Tuesday, I made coffee, had a smoke in the COLD garage -- 59° and that felt really good -- scanned the news and weather, and heard a gaggle of geese heading south. Somehow, I don't think Summer's finished with us yet, but the very cool temp was more than welcomed. I turned-off the AC, and opened-up the condo to let the fresh, cold, dry air thru, and the breeze was prolific. The lawnmower crews showed-up, and annoyed me all morning. JoAnne finished around 11:15 and left, and by then, and the tardy Republic Services (garbage co) finally emptied the recycle bins. I had some waiting Rxs, and went out for those around 1p.

I re-scanned the news, and it looks like ONE US House Repubbie FINALLY have enough evidence to impeach the Biden scumbag. GOOD! I had condo chores to get done, and by 6p, made dinner, and caught the evening news. No DCN garbage for me; I fear they'll exhume Hitlery Rotten Klintoon. I watched History's "Ancient Aliens" until 11:30p, and unplugged.

When you're dead, you don't know you're dead. The pain is felt by others.

Up at 5:15a on Wednesday, to a sunny, blue sky, nicely (((nippy))) 51°, ZERO-DARK-THIRTY morning, with nasty 90s coming back next week. Summer's not finished with us, just yet. I made a new bag of Monarch Coffee Co's Hawaiian Kona Coffee -- amazing! -- had a couple smokes in the cool garage, tuned into the "CS Show LIVE" and just relaxed. My Sis will be here at 10a to p/u some 2025 calendars I made on the computer, and Sherry at 1p. We had a great time, also doing a trip to Flinchbaugh's Orchard & Farm Market and Saubel's Market, got some goodies, and she left for home, around 5:30p.

'Democrat Girly Men" these days, in Chi-Congo.

After dinner, I watched the news -- 10 mins on real national/ international news, and 50 mins on the ongoing DNC crap -- and then switched to Discovery's "Expedition X" until 12 midnight. Lights out.

"MSNBC’s Joy Reid: Men of the Democratic Party Model ’21st Century Masculinity’” Sure, just like the Democrats: • Fought the Civil War for the right to keep black slaves, • Formed Jim Crow to enforce racial segregation, • Formed the KKK to continue to suppress and control blacks, • Resisted desegregation of the South... I wonder why not many blacks now vote Democrat? 21st Century Masculinity. An oxymoron.

Up at 7a on Thursday, to a clear, sunny, 53° morning, I made coffee, had a smoke in the very cool garage and tuned into the "CS Show LIVE". I scanned the weather and news, and purposely read the DNC recap of that ongoing sock puppet, clown show in Chi-Congo. Another attempt on Trump's life? Good, they caught him.

I had several errands to get done, and left at 12:15p, after lunch. Finally back at 3, I did some condo chores, and some computer work. Uh-oh, I fell asleep at my desk in the office-sunroom, for 2 hrs, and woke around 6p. Nice nap, but if I'd been on the couch, I'd have slept for 3+ hrs. I finished-off the last of the morning's wonderful Kona Coffee. After Blackened Salmon w/ Rice, Green Beans & Sliced Peaches, with a Guacamole-Butter Sauce, for dinner, I watched the news, and switched to Discovery's "Homestead Rescue" until 12 midnight, and called it a day.

Tomorrow starts a new week here in the "Journal", and it's going to be semi-busy, with 2 app'ts and a boatload of errands on the off-days. Plus, the humid, upper-80s and 90s temps will be back, making my life miserable. Crap.

The No Prisoners, End of The Road Election.

It’s fun to muse on the torrent of panicked, deranged texting between Democratic Convention delegates as a runaway train of malignant fates, bad choices, insane policies, delusional ideas, and feral emotion drives them to nominate a moron for president. The confusion and self-doubt must be epic. Are we really gonna do this? Is this really happening? You must imagine this is the same state of mind as, say, a car-full of drunken bridesmaids fishtailing down the highway at 70mph toward a telephone pole.

The mis-plays and subterfuges that brought them to this pass cannot be undone: the insult of letting “Joe Biden” front for a criminal blob government, the many hoaxes and the exorbitant lawfare lawlessness, the gross mismanagement of public affairs, wreckage of institutions, ruined economy, devalued dollar, destruction of households and communities, sexual lunacy and programmed mental illness — this is the party’s legacy. Are none among them even a little bit ashamed of the damage they’ve done to this nation? And maybe wondering about it between one another? Perhaps even anxious to make it stop?

And so, the delegates head to Chicago, a city in civic freefall, to either pretend to celebrate the capricious selection of utterly dubious leaders imposed on them by unseen hands, or, just maybe, to revolt against the evil cabal affecting to “defend our democracy” by squashing it. Of course that’s inside the convention. Lord knows what hijinks are being concocted for outside the United Center arena by the various tribes that run on hot yellow bile these dog days of summer — the Hamas mob, the sex freaks, Antifas, BLMs, assorted Bolsheviks, anarchists, utopians, climate change sob-sisters, Gramscian culture stompers, Spartacists, Trotskyites, Jacobins, Fabians, and plain old riffraff out for fun and loot. The gigantic parking wasteland surrounding the United Center on West Madison Street has the look of a perfect battlefield.

All that commences on Monday. In the meantime, much misdirection zings around the Trumpian opposition and the outlier Robert F Kennedy, Jr., as the intel blob that runs mainstream media attempts to seed dissension and confusion amongst them. It includes rumors that Mr. Trump made “a deal” with the blob to go all flabby in exchange for getting let off the hook on his many blob-contrived lawfare problems. The chance of that being true must be zero, even though New York Judge Juan Merchan has an opportunity to send the former president to jail on September 18. I would like to see him try that. It will surely prompt the most momentous and memorable tableau of symbolic resistance in US history since John Paul Jones yelled to the British ship Serapis requesting his surrender, “I have not yet begun to fight.”

As for RFK, Jr., stories circulate that Mr. Trump tried (and failed) to make a deal that would have got Bobby on-board as veep, or some other juicy assignment, if he would drop out of the race. But it’s hard to see exactly how that discredits either of them, since just about everybody expects Mr. Trump, if elected, to employ Bobby for, at least, cleaning up the public health and pharma sectors of the blob — an epic task he’s ideally suited for.

Then, there was malicious chatter late this week that Bobby had approached Kamala Harris with a proffered endorsement in exchange for a key position in her government — assuming that massive ballot fraud ensures her victory November fifth. Mr. Kennedy denied the rumor and went on to denounce the current incarnation of the Democratic Party as utterly inimical to everything it used to represent when his father and his uncle, President John F. Kennedy, were in office, especially on matters of free speech and censorship.

As that quarrel rolled out, Judge Christina Ryba kicked Bobby off the New York ballot for supposedly mis-stating that he was a New York resident on his own voter registration. He intends to appeal. New York has become a judicial sewer under Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul.

So, stand by now to see whether Kamala Harris and Tim Walz come out of next week’s convention Mixmaster the same way they went in: as bona fide candidates. At some point Ms. Harris will have to demonstrate some fitness for high office besides being a go-go dancer and a laugh riot. Tim Walz acts so unhinged in front of every audience that I expect the campaign to stuff him in a broom closet when the convention is over — should he actually still be on the ticket when all is said and done.

It seems at this point that the brooding Matron of Chappaqua will never get her “turn” in the White House after all. It must gall Hillary to see history change her out for an equity hire with half a brain. Politics is a cruel business. You’ll see just how cruel the next time they try to whack Mr. Trump in this No Prisoners, End of the Road election campaign. It will almost certainly get crazier from here.

What Is Really Going on at Federal Agencies?

Years ago as an intern in D.C., and long before the agencies all locked their doors to visitors, I had the occasion to putter around the Department of Transportation and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

These were obviously not normal workplaces. To my amazement, they were mostly dark, empty, and quiet, and the employees did not seem in the slightest bit busy doing anything at all. It was all kind of spooky.

It then occurred to me that these many hundreds of agencies and millions of employees are not really covered well by the media much at all and certainly not in any detail. They mostly operate without any oversight but for the periodic reporting done for Congress and the sporadic accounting reports from the Government Accounting Office that are mostly ignored.

It’s rather strange, isn’t it? The business pages are packed with details on the hirings and operations of every publicly traded company. We know sales, products, locations, and management structures and changes. But as regards these agencies that are supposed to be responsible to the people, there is a strange lack of curiosity about what they really do and how they do it.

There is at least one organization that takes a deeper look. It is called OpentheBooks, and started with an idealistic idea of telling people what the operations of these agencies are really like. They aren’t trying to unearth classified information or otherwise do whistleblowing. They focus on the mundane accounting and goings-on at normal civilian agencies.

What they found would never be tolerated at any private company.

The average pay in 109 of 125 federal agencies was more than $100,000 per employee and after just three years federal employees received 44 days -- 8.8 full work weeks of paid time off.

In a report to Congress, the Biden Administration redacted (hid) 350,000 names and 280,000 work locations from the payrolls. And these employees aren’t spies or intelligence officers – they are rank-and-file workers within the alphabet soup of traditional federal agencies like Education, Health and Health Services, EPA, or IRS. As a result, the organization couldn’t tell “who” was working, “where” they were located, and “what” they were doing!
At the Department of Commerce, the Inspector General found 23% of employees sampled were overpaid.

Employees took nearly a year in some instances to update their duty station, which dictates their locality pay. The Department couldn’t verify whether employees were showing up to the office as required.
The Commerce Department has 47,000 employees. The Inspector General sampled only 31 employees and seven of those were overpaid by a combined $43,000!

You are not surprised, right? And you probably assume that this is just the tip of the iceberg also. Indeed, one supposes so. I’m looking at the Federal Register. It lists 429 agencies in the government now, with only a tiny number mentioned in the US Constitution. The rest have been legislated into existence by Congress, going far beyond anything the Founders ever imagined.

Thanks to nearly a century and a half of gradual accumulation, these agencies have a permanent life. The employees cannot be fired except for egregious actions. And the elected president has no control over them. The president can appoint agency heads but then the battle becomes hundreds vs millions, and the hundreds of appointees are new at their jobs and easily driven out with a hint of financial impropriety, real or made up. The permanent class of middle-state bureaucrats with all the institutional knowledge know precisely where the power resides. It is with them.

This system of administrative hegemony has not been seriously tested in court. It is likely contrary to everything the Constitution ever imagined. True, Congress created these agencies but they exist within the executive branch. Congress cannot simply outsource its job to another branch and then wash its hands of the result. That practice makes a mess out of the original Constitutional structure.

Leaving those fundamental issues aside, what’s striking is how little oversight of these agencies really takes place. Very little reporting is done on them at all apart from perfunctory reprinting of agency press releases by major media. The reason is that many reporters rely on the permanent government for information sources and protection after the fact. There is a hand-in-glove relationship going on here and it’s been building for many decades, even dating back to the Great War.

Every once in a while, we get a glimpse of the reality on the ground. The work of OpentheBooks makes life briefly hard for agencies that never like to be in the news but very little if anything is ever done about the problem.

There has been some much-welcome talk lately of untangling the cozy relationships between these hundreds of agencies and the industries they oversee. That’s good. We really should not be building a corporatist system that runs contrary to the ideal of free enterprise. But the idea of ending agency capture is also not a permanent solution to the problem.

We must think more fundamentally. With an ideal president and legislature, we would pursue something like what is going on in Argentina today. Whole agencies need to be deleted entirely from the federal budget. And then let the chips fall where they may. So long as I can remember, every Republican president has promised to get rid of the Department of Education. Great. But why does it never happen? I would like to know the answer. Plus, that is only a starter: there are hundreds of such agencies that should be on the list.

The real solution is a complete rethinking of government itself. Every single candidate should be asked to explain their answer to a basic question: what in your view is the role of government? Whatever the answer is, all existing practices of government need to be assessed in light of that. Also, voters should evaluate their answers with an even more fundamental question: what kind of society do we want to live in, a free or centrally managed one? That’s the core question.

The goings-on at the Department of Commerce provide a slight glimpse but the real scale of the problem is far more vast. I have no doubt that if a serious think tank really looked at the details, provided fully and transparently, we would be astonished at what we find. As some news organization has been saying for a while, democracy dies in darkness. Let’s shine the light of truth on the vast complex of civilian agencies that purport to manage our lives better than we can ourselves.