The Divide and the Wall

 

There is no more perfect measuring tape depicting the divide between those who desire government as usual and those tired of the monster in Washington D.C. which has been named the “Deep State” which envisions minions of the state huddled in their offices and cubicles making rules for the rest of the nation without any recourse by the people to select or remove these bureaucrats. This has been an existing threat to the freedoms and liberties of every American for decades. Some ask where did this “Deep State” originate and how did they gain so much power and influence over even everyday life? That is an interesting question which brings to light the bad attitude many lawmakers really have for their constituents. This story starts as a result of gross mismanagement of the economic front combined with the demands of World War II imposed atop the former problem. The first person to go on the record and warn the people of this growing threat was, from an unsuspected person, President Dwight David Eisenhower. President Eisenhower had probably one of the deepest understandings of how the government functioned and how the unchecked growth in the Federal Governmental Powers would eventually lead to an oppressive state where the rules had become so complex and often contradictory that anybody could be arrested for even the most casual and daily activity. Between his serving as the Commander of all Allied Forces in the European Theater, he learned the tact needed to work with the political; and as President, he came to envision the potential that the Federal Government could grow to threaten the people and the nation. He referred to this threat as the “Military Industrial Complex” but he saw deeper as mentioned in his parting speech given as he prepared to leave office and retire from public life, which we have included below. This additional threat he foresaw was for a technological elite who through computing power, money and control over information would hold the power to control much of life and even potentially take dictatorial control enslaving even the governance of the country reducing the people to pawns they moved as they desired. This short speech is well worth watching as President Eisenhower hits the nail on the head explaining the potential problem which has slowly come into focus and we are witnessing today.

 

 

Today, we have as President a non-politician Donald J. Trump, a figure who has proven to be divisive unlike any before him. He managed, as has every Republican from Eisenhower forward, to alienate the Democrat base and their far left set. Trump has also managed to distress the elite Republican guard, also known as the Country Club Republicans who mostly reside in New England but run for office in states such as Texas, Utah or anywhere else they may have a second or third vacation home. Then the far right has become disenchanted with Trump, as he has not turned out to be the hateful White Supremacist they had desired. This is one group which President Trump gladly refuses to give cover as their actions for hating others is repugnant to him. We realize that there are a fair number of people who like to believe that President Trump is aligned with those hate filled people of the far right, but President Trump has nothing for those hate-filled people on the far right any more or less than he feels about hate-filled people on the far left. There have been a few actions by President Trump which have been for the betterment of the American public, though some will deny this with every ounce of their energy. These liberating actions, though, will only prove helpful if the people actually observe, learn and then act upon what they have learned and observed. The biggest item on this list is the revelation of the “Deep State” which is the fulfillment of America ignoring the warnings from President Eisenhower. His warning of a military industrial complex taking control of the governance and using the government to their benefit without concern for the betterment of the people was likely ignored and soon forgotten and the monster grew to the point where it has enveloped much of industry and all of government. Their claim is that when they gain, the people gain, but from what we have witnessed, the people do not gain as much nor as fast thus allowing the elite from the industrial techno-military and dark programs complex to have also engulfed the media and academic worlds into a shadow government. This has been further enhanced by the machinations by the full array of management of numerous bureaucracies, virtual independent or mutually dependent fiefdoms, with their eternal demands for more financing to solve the problem they caused with their previous solutions leading to their never-ending cycles of demands. This has permitted the government to grow to the point where control became difficult and very soon thereafter moved far beyond any point where control was even remotely conceivable. This was greatly aided by the Congress being remiss in performing their Constitutionally defined duties and consecutive White Houses which permitted such delinquency in regard of the Constitution and singing incomplete legislation leading to an ever-growing government bureaucracy.

 

 

The problem arose when the issues became more complicated, complex, technical and beyond the ability for the average member of Congress to get their arms around. This led to the forming and passing of legislation which did not set laws but rather set vague and generalized goals with the notation for the actual laws, in the form of regulations which Congress has assigned to have equal weight as a law, to be filled in by certain chosen departments within the government and often ending stating any other departments, as determined to be necessary. This permitted virtually every department within the government to make regulations and then set up the enforcement requirements within the agencies leading to the perpetual growth of the departments which for the bureaucracy which is the swamp President Trump alluded to draining. The unavoidable result of this system are the web of regulations which have already become almost innumerable in scope leading to regulations both requiring on one hand and forbidding on the other hand of acts, reportings, and other requirements such that nobody can comply with the entirety without potentially transgressing another regulation when complying with an original regulation. This is the perfect storm required for the government to be weaponized against the very people it was designed to protect. Anyone who owned a small business or even a Mom & Pop store realizes day in and day out trying to meet the regulations they know or have been advised to follow. When they are fortunate, the government leaves things at that, but should somebody decide to target such operations, they simply seek out some regulations, or some group of regulations, which can be applied to their business forcing them to attempt to keep abreast of these demands which can and likely will become overwhelming and often results in their business falling victim to over-regulation forcing them out of business. Moneyed interests can even twist laws to the point of breaking in order to gain their desired results. Such appeared to be the case in the “Kelo v. City of New London” which involved use of eminent domain to transfer land from one private owner to another private owner to further economic development. The Supreme Court decided five to four that the city had the right to force owners of private residences in an area where the city desired to place high-rise condos and a shopping mall had the right under eminent domain to force out the owners of homes, some had been family residences for generations, simply because the new development would provide greater revenue through taxes remitted and thus the development was in the best interest of the people which outweighed the property rights of individuals. Many were very upset with this decision as it put monetary concerns ahead of the individual and their rights. Now, any governing body can decide to take over any neighborhood if the planned replacement will be more profitable for the governing body, individual rights be damned. We hold out hope that in some future this decision will be overturned.

 

This brings us to the Trump Wall along the Mexico-American border. The present fight, some might even say war, between President Trump and Congress over funding the wall reached a new plateau this week with the House of Representatives and the Senate both passing legislation voiding the State of Emergency declared by the President by which he could get the funding despite Congress. As should have been expected, President Trump used his veto and sent the legislation back to the House of Representatives so the Congress could work on procuring an override to the Presidential veto. It is almost a given that the proponents of this legislation will never be able to get the two-thirds vote necessary in both houses. Yes, there were twelve Senate Republicans who voted for this legislation yet it still only passed the Senate by a vote of 59-41, well short of the sixty-seven required for an override. The mere fact that twelve Senators from presumably Trump’s own party would cross over to rebuke him so flagrantly is simply further proof that the President is not supported by the mainstream of either party. President Trump is honestly the President without a party, he just borrowed one for the time being and many of those Republicans who see their control threatened are quite put out, one might even say they are furious. This veto will soon become another Trump derangement where it will advance their precious “Impeachment Clock” one more tic closer to toc. Thusfar, the “Impeachment Clock” has had an operational problem in that it continues to tic but cannot advance, as it is unable to find the required toc to complete the cycle and move ahead. Thus, the “Impeachment Clock” will forever be stuck at just under three minutes to eleven and never count on to high noon and an actual impeachment trial in the Senate.

 

 

The wall along the border will possibly begin in fits and starts but will not be completed even should President Trump be reelected. The only way the wall gets built is if the United States can elect a new President who shares the vision of controlling the border but is at least measurably less contentious. As any Republican elected for the foreseeable future will be treated exactly as President Trump has been treated, the wall would require a Democrat to build it. Any Democrat attempting to build the wall will not see a second term as he will have alienated his entire base as “intersectionality” has a required position in favor of open borders, and as long as the left demands rigid obedience to their chosen mantras which include but are not limited to, open borders, Israel is racist, renewable energy over fossil fuels, free college, free healthcare, Israel committing genocide, Zionism is racism, global warming-climate change will destroy the world and a host of other items approved by the Social Democrat Party. The people behind these far left positions have taken control of the Democrat Party with the old-school Democrats hanging on for dear life hoping not to fall within the sights of these leftists and face a primary challenge. The new left has proven their ability to unseat even long-sitting representatives such as when Representative Joseph Crowley of New York, once seen as a possible successor to Nancy Pelosi as Democratic leader of the House, lost to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in a primary race. The Democrat Party will be facing an inevitable and inexorable slide to the far left and demands for making the United States into their idea of a socialist utopia. Unfortunately, there has never been a socialist utopia which incorporated a group larger than a community as socialism depends on the ability to shame those who demands more free things without toting their own share of the work required. Pure socialism worked in the Israeli Kibbutzim but Israel herself necessitated moving from a largely socialist governance to a more capitalistic governance where even the healthcare system, which covers everybody with a set minimal level of care, has four companies which offer the basic required plans as demanded by government and each adds their own flavor to that package plus offer higher degrees of care for additional process. Then there is the other story about the ills caused by collectivism in the Plymouth Colony and the “Third Thanksgiving” and how injecting a little ability for self-gain increased their work levels and productivity. We have often held that man is not a perfect being and some amount of greed is to be found in all people. This makes a system based on needs over production will always lead to an ever increasing list of demands over an ever shrinking productivity, which deems socialism to failure whenever people, and not ants or bees, are concerned. Meanwhile, in a more capitalist system those who have needs simply have to work smarter, harder or both in order to gain those needs. Not as obvious, if one can find the means for having others work and produce for them, they will gain even greater rewards. But socialism aside, since only a Republican President will favor building the Mexico Wall, and any Republican will face the level of hatred which President Trump faces, this may doom the wall to failure. Those who desire claiming that President Trump is being treated differently than other Republicans must have missed out on Bush Derangement Syndrome during George W. Bush’s Presidency or have not been born or was not old enough to remember the taunts and insults hurled vindictively at President Ronald Reagan whose movie poster of him with the chimpanzee “Bonzo” claiming that he was second fiddle to a monkey, and they were not referring to the film. The wall is not going to be completed no matter the steps taken by the President and the swamp cannot be drained as it has reached a size beyond the human capacity to take down any faster than it was built, which is now approaching three-quarters of a century if we take President Eisenhower’s warning as the beginning of the problem. We can only hope that the swamp can be contained, then we can work at draining it. Until them, Americans can assist draining the swamp or enlarging the swamp, there is no neutral on this issue.

Beyond the Cusp

 

State Department Deep State Aiding Palestinian Terrorist Payments

 

Nobody at the State Department nor those from the White House will accept the allegation that they are aiding the payment of Palestinian terrorists and their families. They will talk about the humanitarian crisis and their aid being restricted for feeding, housing and other essential aid usage by the Palestinian Authority. This was directly contradicted by a letter sent by nine Democratic members of the House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee’s subcommittee on the Middle East which they sent to President Trump. Their complaint began with the fact that, “all U.S. assistance, including lifesaving humanitarian aid, has been frozen since January 2018.” Their insistence continued with the argument, “We are deeply concerned that there seems to be no information available to Members of Congress as to the nature, scope, or duration of this assistance review. We support the need for oversight of our assistance programs…. However, it is unnecessary to withhold funding while conducting this review.” After lamenting the reported humanitarian crisis in Gaza, something no amount of aid money or provisions could possibly help as all aid goes straight to Hamas or to Hamas via UNRWA, they got to the meat of their complaint with, “We have heard from many of our non-governmental organization implementing partners…who will be forced to shut down in the coming weeks if funding is not released.” Their letter demanding the White House explain their actions and lack of funding ending with, “The Committee has previously requested information in writing…about the West Bank and Gaza assistance review, and has not received detailed information in response. Therefore, we request an update as to the current status of the review…and a timeline for the conclusion of the review. We also urge the immediate release of US bilateral assistance to the West Bank and Gaza.”

 

Now how about we translate their stated positions into normal language and strip away the equivocations and speak straightly. These concerned Representatives appeared largely to be concerned about aid going to Gaza. In theory, there should not be any aid from the United States going to Gaza under any legal context, as Gaza is a terrorist entity. Gaza is ruled by Hamas, a terrorist group by almost all definitions, and they are backed by Islamic Jihad who are in the running to be as bad if not worse than Hamas. These Representatives know very well that every dollar of aid which eaches Gaza will be spent on weapons of war and infiltration tunnels into Israel for the exclusive purpose of murdering Israeli civilians and kidnapping some to hold for ransom. Hamas and Islamic Jihad have stated this as one of their main goals for the future. These Democrat Representatives also are aware that currently there is a one sided attack still being engaged by these terrorist entities in Gaza flying incendiary kites and balloons into Israel despite a supposed ceasefire agreement arranged through Egypt with American support. Finally, they are completely aware that Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas has repeatedly insisted that the blood money for murdering Jews will continue to be paid to terrorists and their families even if it takes every last penny of aid money and that these payments are to be made as the first and foremost payments of the government before even the salaries of government workers and security forces (the PA army).

 

Collection of Hamas Incendiary Kites and Balloons

 

Basically, these nine Democrat Representatives who are presumably specialists on the entire situation in the Middle East are most concerned that the terrorists who desire or have murdered Jews in Israel, placing sending aid money to Hamas and the PA to pay for more terrorism as the their top priorities, placing these funds at the top of their concerns over anything else occurring in the Middle East. Funding terrorism against Israel comes before assisting the American allies who were the tip of the spear which brought down the Islamic State, the Kurds, or relieving the plight of Syrian refugees in camps along the Jordanian and Turkish borders with Syria, and above aiding the refugees from the ethnic cleansing in Myanmar crammed into refugee camps in Bangladesh. One could look at the Middle East and decide that it is a continental crisis factory where Israel is possibly the most stable area in its entirety. We can only suspect the worst concerning these representatives and their ulterior motives.

 

Further, this coming on the heels of the announced releasing of dozens of millions of dollars to the Palestinian Authority’s preventive security forces only makes the entirety of this all the more suspicious. The PA Security Forces have committed acts of terror shooting at and killing Israeli civilians, though they are usually acquitted of any charges for political reasons. PA Security Forces have opened fire at IDF soldiers and paid a high price in return. The list of PA Security Force personnel killing and attacking Israelis is rather extensive. What might be shocking is that these PA Security Force personnel who have murdered Israelis now receive close to or more than their regular salary for their act of terrorism and get these funds for as long as the PA has any funds to spend. The blood money paid under the guise of family aid for the martyrs might be the only funds which are actually paid out before Mahmoud Abbas further enriches himself and his family. Terrorists have admitted to carrying out terror acts seeking to be killed so their family would get funds and be better off. If we have knowledge of these incidents, then you know that members of Congress know all about them as well, which leads to our questioning the real motives of these representatives in demanding that funding be released and their specifying that it be made especially for Gaza and the PA Security Forces. In both cases, they are explicitly requesting that terrorists receive American aid monies. There are reasons that President Trump has been reviewing aid to the PA, and it is not to cause people to suffer, the PA and Hamas do that well enough with or without American tax money.

 

Still, it is worrying that the State Department can simply send funds under the guise that there are emergencies and they have received pleas from the PA for relief and thus released these funds. It appears that this was accomplished without any permission from the White House and definitely without the President giving any authorization. It would be interesting to have the order for this release of funds traced up the structural charts of the State Department and find out exactly who and in what position this order originated. If it was anybody other than Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, then somebody should be stood before Secretary of State Pompeo and made to give the reasons and from where they believed they had the authority for releasing these funds. Their story had better be very convincing or they should be fired. But that is the problem, Civil Service employees are next to impossible to fire. The only thing more difficult in being rid of than an employee in the United States government are cockroaches, especially those residing within the core of a nuclear power plant. This is one of the deepest problems facing the United States, a virtual army of bureaucrats answerable to nobody, overseen seldom and often without a direct chain of command, incapable of being removed from employment except in rare cases of extreme malfeasance, able to destroy people and even the policies of the President of the United States. Once at a sufficiently high level, they run their own little fiefdom, the only form of employee where if it takes five of them to do the job, easily handled by one employee in the real world, yet all five get commendations (it usually takes eight to ten or more) and yet their numbers continue to grow making them even less manageable and given even less guidance or oversight. Should any President make a policy that for every promotion given in any department not directly commanding soldiers or direct law enforcement field agents, two government workers would need to be terminated, providing they were elected to two terms, the problem might be halved.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Justice Department Inspector General Report on FBI and 2016 Elections

 

Why not just get the most over-hyped part out of the way right off the bat. Yes, FBI lawyer Lisa Page sent a text message to her lover at the FBI asking, “(Trump is) not ever going to become president, right? Right?!” with an actual ?! which where we come from shows distress, uncertainty and heightened anxiety. Then the fateful reply from FBI agent Peter Strzok who texted back stating, “No. No he won’t. We’ll stop it.” So, what can we conclude from this evidence? Well, that the rest of the five-hundred page report will end up as fodder for the mainstream media while social media will be tossing back and forth how that exchange is meaningless and also that it signifies the end of the world, it all depends upon which side of this battle you side.

 

We have a different take on the whole report and a few of the outstanding minutia which we believe should have sounded alarm bells somewhere within the FBI or the Justice Department but obviously did not. The first thing is this was the Justice Department selecting an inspector to inspect the FBI which is part of the Justice Department. The fact that this investigation found absolutely nothing untoward should have been the expected response. Basically you had an enforcement officer from the Justice Department investigating if the department which pays his salary did anything wrong. Why is it we see something not quite right here? Well, because this investigation which was largely to see if there was any bias in favor of Hillary Clinton and/or against Donald Trump during the 2016 election cycle was performed by the agency where the bias presumably was centered while the investigation into whether Trump’s campaign was working hand in glove with the Russians went to a special prosecutor. The important difference there is the special prosecutor is paid independently and thus will often be more thorough. Both of these investigations should have been investigated by a special prosecutor or neither of these investigations should even have been executed. Having the Justice Department investigate the Justice Department is the quickest means to reaching a conclusion that nothing was done which requires any further investigation, now can we get back to running the country as we see fit while basically ignoring the President and Congress unless we agree with them.

 

But we believe there was one little item which really should have set off alarms. This concerns FBI agent Peter Strzok. Even before his little reassuring text message, there was something not quite correct in his behavior. Mr. Strzok was part of the investigation by the FBI into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private e-mail server. Mr. Strzok was part of the investigation by the FBI into collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians. Mr. Strzok was initially part of the special counsel probe being run by Robert Mueller. Any normal human being would probably grow suspicious of any person who wormed their way into every aspect of investigating and potentially affecting the Presidential campaign. One would think that Mr. Strzok’s immediate supervisor would have at least called him in for a consultation and inquired as to what was it that had him working on so many closely related investigations. Then, a good supervisor would have made him give up at the very least one of the positions if not just choose which one in which he most desired to take part. Leaving one person in all three of these investigations was an error of management. Additionally, Peter Strzok’s wife, Melissa Hodgman, was appointed by President Obama as Associate Director of the SEC’s (Securities and Exchange Commission) Enforcement Division in 2016. We guess the good news is that Joseph Burrow, the husband of former FBI lawyer Lisa Page, has a position which is not with the government and may actually be above suspicion of anything except probably really upset about his name being dragged like this because his wife was having too much fun at the office parties.

 

Peter Strzok and Lisa Page

 

What we love about this entire boondoggle is that it exposed something those of us who grew up around Washington D.C. already knew, that there is a government within the government which actually runs the day-to-day operations and because Congress grew fat and lazy, they also decide how the general concepts and ideas which Congressional legislation contains are interpreted and applied into regulations which have the weight of law. President Barack Obama understood this which is why during his first term; Cass Sunstein was named the Administration’s Regulatory Czar. President Obama’s initial instructions to Mr. Sunstein were to go through the legislation passed during the last decade and look for regulations which could be derived out of these pieces of legislation. Needless to say, Mr. Sunstein was very efficient and the number of regulations during President Obama’s first term was significant. So, yes, Virginia, there really is a “Deep State” and it lives within the agencies which are largely manned by left-leaning to extreme left individuals with, every so often, a conservative who spends much time ducking to remain out of sight and hopefully out of mind. The reason for this is very simple to understand. During Republican conservative administrations, true conservatives, they more often than not put in place a hiring freeze, consolidate departments, which often lead to numerous government workers being sent to new agencies where they bump another worker who has less time in service at their level or is a lower pay grade who then bumps the next until the most recent hire found loses their job. The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) is a very strong and powerful union and has garnered near chiseled in stone guarantee that once you complete your probationary period you can only be fired if you really do something stupid like texting on your government provided computer, “(Trump is) not ever going to become president, right? Right?!” or reply to this text saying on your government provided computer, “No. No he won’t. We’ll stop it.” One of these people was forced from their position and the other merely demoted and barred from active investigatory positions. So, even doing such as these might not get you fired. So, Republican conservatives block hiring new personnel when they might have some sway in the process. Then when a Democrat or Republican Progressive and often leftist is elected, the flood gates open and the hiring circus begins and things are good in old D.C. This is how and why most federal government employees are liberal or even leftists and the promotion ladder is stacked even further to the left than the middle and lower level positions. President Trump has revealed this truth for the world to see. Unfortunately, most of the world, and even the American people, do not care and most honestly believe that there is nothing that can be done to repair this problem. The really sad news is that they are correct.

 

Deep State

 

Thomas Jefferson realized that this would be a problem, that with parties that the government employees would tend to be more from one party than the other and with time would create a poisonous atmosphere which would threaten the people’s freedoms and liberties. Thomas Jefferson stated it outright when he wrote to his friend William Smith, “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” Thomas Jefferson once confided that he believed for the United States to stay true to its founding declarations that it would take a revolution every twenty years to force the nations to start again from scratch with only the Declarations of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. This, in his opinion would be found to be necessary otherwise; the federal government would usurp the power of the states and become tyrannical. He was very likely a tad too pessimistic thinking twenty years, but two-hundred and twenty would probably have reached that stage in his mind. When people who have positions of such power as obviously Peter Strzok must have wielded getting on every investigation of note about the election all to work to the detriment of one of the candidates and the favor of the other, then there is a problem. That it took an investigation by an Inspector General to make possible the airing of the full scope of the problems was significant. What became even more significant was that the Inspector General was so invested in the swamp that is the Deep State that he saw nothing inherently wrong or partisan in these events. Basically, the report states that everything was just as normal as could be expected, all things considered. This is what is considered normal then there is a deep-seated problem and it needs to be pulled up by its rotting foliage, roots and all. But, that is something the American people need to wrestle with and decide. We hope that the solution found will be peaceable but thorough leading to efficient and balanced government similar to the initial days of the nation where the government represents the people and not represses the people. We wish you well as you enter your two-hundred-forty-third year.

 

Beyond the Cusp