Trump as the Red Pill

 

Two recent events illustrate what is wrong with American government. First, former acting CIA Director John E. McLaughlin recently said “Thank God for the Deep State” in a semi-joking fashion to praise the partisan narcissist CIA employee working with Rep. Schiff to bring down the Trump Administration. Second, Homeland Security was called in to secure one of the US Department of Agriculture’s office buildings in DC earlier this month; a female employee reportedly was preparing to bring a gun to work to shoot those responsible for moving two research units to Kansas City (along with her job).

The common thread is an attitude of entitlement that is out of hand. At the top end of the career ladder, there are those who expect deference both to their perks and their policy preferences. In particular, the CIA and State Department appear to be in open revolt against the Trump Administration. These are the people who brought you the Iran Deal, who preferred the asinine Baker Plan to The Surge, who were still writing papers about Soviet expansionist plans instead of looking for Islamic terrorists or Chinese technology thieves. They openly resent the idea that outsiders and amateurs are allowed to make policy just because the American people elected them. These careerists include the people who advanced careers out of the sham Peace Process in which we all had to pretend that the likes of Yasir Arafat could be a state leader capable (or willing) to deliver non-violence. But those signing ceremonies produced a lot of framed photos and career points, which is what really matters. The careerists feel more affinity with their counterparts in other countries than to us domestic deplorables.

At the other end of the ladder, government employees at the federal, state, and local levels are increasingly becoming a political force that looks to punish and suppress any hint of taxpayer reluctance and to extinguish expectations of accountability. In the Terminator movies, Skynet was just software until it became self-aware. Our bureaucrats are already at a similar point of maladaptive evolution.

The Chicago teachers’ union just this week got lots of additional money the city does not have to continue to deliver a spectacularly bad product to the families of that city. Their political power is frightening. One has to wonder what federal employees would be doing now to hold funds and services hostage if President Reagan had not broken the air traffic controller strike in 1981.

It is particularly important that Trump survives impeachment and wins re-election if, for no other reason, than a loss would allow the avowed enemies of taxpayers to further entrench and make themselves immune from scrutiny or accountability. It is also important that there are serious adverse personal consequences for the authors of the Russiagate coup attempt.

It is truly bizarre the extent to which the imaginary fears and vituperation projected upon Donald Trump have told us so much about our real enemies. A guy who is not exactly a paragon of linguistic precision nor addicted to accuracy and verbal precision has nevertheless ushered in a moment of extraordinary clarity.

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  1. MichaelKennedy Inactive
    MichaelKennedy
    @MichaelKennedy

    Agree completely.  The CIA is out of control.  I again recommend Angelo Codevilla’s interview with Tablet.

    https://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/culture-news/292763/angelo-codevilla

    One of the things that struck me about your original piece was your portrait of the American elite as a single class that seamlessly spans both the Democratic and Republican parties.

    Of course, yes. Not in exactly the same way, though; what I said was that the Democrats were the senior partners in the ruling class. The Republicans are the junior partners.

    The reason being that the American ruling class was built by or under the Democratic Party. First, under Woodrow Wilson and then later under Franklin Roosevelt. It was a ruling class that prized above all its intellectual superiority over the ruled. And that saw itself as the natural carriers of scientific knowledge, as the class that was naturally best able to run society and was therefore entitled to run society.

    The Republican members of the ruling class aspire to that sort of intellectual status or reputation. And they have shared a taste of this ruling class. But they are not part of the same party, and as such, are constantly trying to get closer to the senior partners. As the junior members of the ruling class, they are not nearly as tied to government as the Democrats are. And therefore, their elite prerogatives are not safe.

    Those are Trump’s, and our, enemies.

    • #1
  2. I Walton Member
    I Walton
    @IWalton

    I think more folks are figuring this out, but they remain a minority because kids are easily fooled and only the bright ones eventually sort it out.  It is not an accident that all societies have always centralized before they die.  We must dismember the national school system.  If we don’t we lose.     It doesn’t matter what we replace it with as long as it’s decentralized, run by parents and independent teachers, not centralized educators and politicians.   And we must fix immigration.  The schools are easier to fix.

    • #2
  3. Fake John/Jane Galt Coolidge
    Fake John/Jane Galt
    @FakeJohnJaneGalt

    I have been saying for years that various governments in the country, especially the Federal government are basically  Democrat ran criminal organizations.  It is just now they have enough power they can care less who sees so that even those that have their head in the sand has to see it.   But what do I know?  I am just some cynical, sarcastic, old guy.

    • #3
  4. I Walton Member
    I Walton
    @IWalton

    While we’re at it we must distinguish between the bureaucracies that shouldn’t exist and those we need.  You mention State and the CIA.  We need those two.  They and DOD are the only ones that should exist at the national level.  Others should not exist or exist only at the State and local level.  We pick on state and CIA because they don’t have built in constituencies to defend them.  State used to be small and run by career folks but was eroded over the last 30 or more years to make it more representative precisely by folks who didn’t like its non political influence.     The CIA is a strange place being battled by politicians for decades, split between operatives and analysts.  I’m not sure what to do about it other than shrink it and provide tough politicly conservative leadership but leadership that knows the agency and foreign policy reality.   Neither the CIA or State are responsible for the mess in Washington.  The threat comes from the giant bureaucracies that have big budgets and lots of superfluous people who are doing things they shouldn’t but have big constituents that support them because they spend lots of money.  They just grow and exercise power.  These are the problem.  

    • #4
  5. Old Bathos Member
    Old Bathos
    @OldBathos

    I agree that State and CIA are not a significant part of the metastatic fiscal bloat.  However, they are centers of power and influence. If they desert allegiance to America as America is understood by normal Americans and instead work on behalf of globalists, revisionists and the new class etc., they can do a lot of damage precisely because of the necessary existence of these agencies.

    This is not a new problem (Think of the State-CIA Alger Hiss fan club demanding that the rubes like Nixon stop thinking that their betters are accountable to them in any way.).  But the overt defiance is remarkable.  I really don’t have a problem with large scale turnover in these agencies if it clears out the self-important and re-establishes the rule of elected government.

    • #5
  6. Jason Obermeyer Member
    Jason Obermeyer
    @JasonObermeyer

    My favorite part of the interview was when he praised the integrity of our intelligence officers. If we’re hiring high integrity people as intelligence officers, we’re doing it wrong. 

    • #6
  7. James Gawron Inactive
    James Gawron
    @JamesGawron

    Old Bathos: The common thread is an attitude of entitlement that is out of hand. At the top end of the career ladder, there are those who expect deference both to their perks and their policy preferences.

    OldB,

    Start with “Facts don’t matter only the narrative matters” and then you mutate to “Facts don’t matter only my whim matters”. These woketards are capable of justifying anything. Here is your self-possessed entitled woketard destroying property in broad daylight while being filmed.

    Watch: University of Michigan Student Destroys Turning Point USA Recruiting Table

    Hopefully this idiot has a warrant out for his arrest already. If somebody had given him what he deserved which was a crack over the head with something hard enough to knock him cold, I’m sure he would have screamed that his civil rights had been violated.

    Just another day in the neighborhood.

    Regards,

    Jim

     

    • #7
  8. Susan Quinn Contributor
    Susan Quinn
    @SusanQuinn

    Old Bathos: It is truly bizarre the extent to which the imaginary fears and vituperation projected upon Donald Trump have told us so much about our real enemies. A guy who is not exactly a paragon of linguistic precision nor addicted to accuracy and verbal precision has nevertheless ushered in a moment of extraordinary clarity.

    We have let the administrative state develop an exaggerated view of their own importance, and it will be incredibly difficult to pull them back. I don’t have a clue about how that will happen. And when we look at how closely the Democrats and Republicans worked, getting along just fine thank-you-very-much, the Republicans are discovering how difficult that is to reverse. It’s ugly and going to get uglier. Good post, @oldbathos.

    • #8
  9. Gossamer Cat Coolidge
    Gossamer Cat
    @GossamerCat

    Old Bathos: It is particularly important that Trump survives impeachment and wins re-election if for no other reason than a loss would allow the avowed enemies of taxpayers to further entrench and make themselves immune from scrutiny or accountability. It is also important that there are serious adverse personal consequences for the authors of the Russiagate coup attempt.

    The more that I think about it, the statement Chuck Schumer made at the outset of Trump’s presidency about: “You take on the intelligence community, they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you, so even for a practical supposedly hard-nosed businessman he’s being really dumb to do this” was quite remarkable.

    The remarkable thing was not that he said it or that it was true, but that there seemed to be so little questioning about whether it should be true.   Everyone seemed to just accept the fact that the intelligence community had enough power and cover that they could get back at Trump, an elected official, and there was nothing we can do about it.

    • #9
  10. Susan Quinn Contributor
    Susan Quinn
    @SusanQuinn

    James Gawron (View Comment):

    Old Bathos: The common thread is an attitude of entitlement that is out of hand. At the top end of the career ladder, there are those who expect deference both to their perks and their policy preferences.

    OldB,

    Start with “Facts don’t matter only the narrative matters” and then you mutate to “Facts don’t matter only my whim matters”. These woketards are capable of justifying anything. Here is your self-possessed entitled woketard destroying property in broad daylight while being filmed.

    Watch: University of Michigan Student Destroys Turning Point USA Recruiting Table

    Hopefully this idiot has a warrant out for his arrest already. If somebody had given him what he deserved which was a crack over the head with something hard enough to knock him cold, I’m sure he would have screamed that his civil rights had been violated.

    Just another day in the neighborhood.

    Regards,

    Jim

     

    I think they should keep the emergency number for the campus police on their speed dial. That was outrageous!

    • #10
  11. Franco Member
    Franco
    @Franco

    I was skeptical, even cynical, but now I’m really red-pilled.

    Much more is clear. To take a bit of partisanship out of this, does anyone doubt that if Obama wasn’t somehow warned off closing Gitmo and pulling troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan ( things I would have been against at the time) he wouldn’t have done it? He wasn’t just being prudent. 

    I have never trusted them. They know too much. They’ve done too much. Now in the Information Age where everything is connected, they have unprecedented power.

    Who here thinks LeeHarvey Oswald was the lone assassin? Who thinks Jeffrey Epstein killed himself? Who wonders about the Las Vegas shooter? Anyone familiar with the kid who the FBI were interrogating who was shot dead in his kitchen? He had info on the Boston Bombers and knew something was fishy. Fast and furious, anyone?

    There are still people on the left who remain hyper-wary of these agencies. Their voices are suppressed too. This is how we can triangulate on what’s really happening.

    They have successfully infiltrated and co-opted the media. It’s not just Democrats, they are stooges for these people.

    Hold on, there’s someone knocking at my d 

    • #11
  12. Old Bathos Member
    Old Bathos
    @OldBathos

    The Deep State is not so much about ideology as immunity.  Consider the orchestrated attack on Gen. Flynn.  It was because (a) He criticized the Obama Iran policy; (b) he went to work for Trump; (c) he supported a woman who filed a sexual harassment claim that FBI honcho McCabe wanted to squelch, and (d) he was pushing for an audit of how spooks and diplomats were using set-aside pots of dark money.  My guess is that (c) and (d) were ultimately more significant than (a) and (b) in motivating the effort to destroy him.

    Whistleblowers had a very tough time under Obama because his was an administration based entirely on controlling perception.  Substantive achievement was a distinctly secondary priority.  Thus, the interests of the bureaucracy and the White House were completely aligned such that unpleasant truths were the only enemy.  The Russians, Chinese and Iranians were welcome to all our secrets so long as nothing embarrassing made its way to Fox News, GOP-run oversight committees or the MSM.

    The movie They Live (1988) was written as an anti-yuppie, anti-Reagan allegory but the storyline of an average guy who discovers the secret that the rich and powerful are actually aliens who manipulate and lie to us is better suited to the present-day moment in which the normals discover that it’s us versus an entitled and tenured class with its hostile values and refusal to accept accountability.  

     

     

     

    • #12
  13. DrewInWisconsin, Type Monkey Member
    DrewInWisconsin, Type Monkey
    @DrewInWisconsin

    OB, you’ve touched on much of what Mark Hemingway writes about in this column.

     

    Trump was elected in no small part because tens of millions of Americans do not approve of business as usual in Washington, and specifically the lack of democratic accountability that can be brought to bear on the status quo. And Trump is enough of a natural disruptor that he threatens that status quo in both good and questionable ways. In response, lots of people in D.C. are willing to bend the rules to stop him.

    Further, long before Trump arrived there was so much institutional pressure and money sloshing around in the federal government, not mention the trips through the revolving door between already well-compensated federal jobs and even better compensated special interests. Any responsible person ought dispense with the idea that civil servants are always, well, civil. And they ought to apply the same level of appropriate scrutiny and suspicion to federal employees in the news as we do politicians. At least with politicians we have ourselves to blame, but nobody elects an “interagency consensus.”

    • #13
  14. Samuel Block Support
    Samuel Block
    @SamuelBlock

    My “like” may appear to be an ordinary one, just one of many. But I want to be clear: I “super-like” this post.

    • #14
  15. I Walton Member
    I Walton
    @IWalton

    Old Bathos (View Comment):

    I agree that State and CIA are not a significant part of the metastatic fiscal bloat. However, they are centers of power and influence. If they desert allegiance to America as America is understood by normal Americans and instead work on behalf of globalists, revisionists and the new class etc., they can do a lot of damage precisely because of the necessary existence of these agencies.

    This is not a new problem (Think of the State-CIA Alger Hiss fan club demanding that the rubes like Nixon stop thinking that their betters are accountable to them in any way.). But the overt defiance is remarkable. I really don’t have a problem with large scale turnover in these agencies if it clears out the self-important and re-establishes the rule of elected government.

    Hiss was political.  State back then was conservative.  Of course it always had dedicated lefty minorities but they worked for the other side.   The vast majority,  old timers, left and right knew where US interests were.  It was the cold war.   Things have changed and both have to be fixed.  The point is that some things need to be done away with, most of the Washington bureaucracy, and some things need to be tightened up and fixed.  We shouldn’t confuse the two at all as it leaves the big problem in place and it’s not ideological, its interests and calm, low key leftist  ideology serves it’s purposes.  

    • #15
  16. MichaelKennedy Inactive
    MichaelKennedy
    @MichaelKennedy

    Old Bathos (View Comment):
    I agree that State and CIA are not a significant part of the metastatic fiscal bloat. However, they are centers of power and influence.

    I don’t.  The CIA employs 50,000 people to read foreign language newspapers.  Bob Baer, in his book “See No Evil,” reported that, when he was about to retire, he requested a replacement who spoke Turkic to come out. What he got was an expert in sexual harassment.

    https://www.amazon.com/See-No-Evil-Soldier-Terrorism-ebook/dp/B000FC1KC0/

    When we have the quality of people currently in power, ex-communist and Muslim convert Brennan, for example. we can cut the top 50% with no loss.

    • #16
  17. MichaelKennedy Inactive
    MichaelKennedy
    @MichaelKennedy

    Old Bathos (View Comment):
    Consider the orchestrated attack on Gen. Flynn. It was because (a) He criticized the Obama Iran policy; (b) he went to work for Trump; (c) he supported a woman who filed a sexual harassment claim that FBI honcho McCabe wanted to squelch, and (d) he was pushing for an audit of how spooks and diplomats were using set-aside pots of dark money.

    I’m reading the Lee Smith book on the coup. Flynn also wanted to restructure the Intel Community, which was sufficient reason to take him out. Trump was too new to understand that Flynn was only the first attack.

    • #17
  18. Unsk Member
    Unsk
    @Unsk

    The CIA, State Department and all the rest of the bureaucracy were unconstitutionally granted that almost immune power to be Legislature, Judge, Jury and Prosecutor by a Left Wing  Supreme Court way back in the 30’s and that power was granted near total deference in the Chevron decision.  The appropriate way back to sanity would be to have another conservative textualist Justice on the Court so there may be finally a majority ready to roll back all this power. 

    • #18
  19. DonG Coolidge
    DonG
    @DonG

    Old Bathos: It is particularly important that Trump survives impeachment and wins re-election if for no other reason than a loss would allow the avowed enemies of taxpayers to further entrench and make themselves immune from scrutiny or accountability.

    Indeed.  If the deep-state is allowed to depose an elected president, the lesson learned is that they are truly running the country and unstoppable.  At that point, the deep-state is no different than the communist party of USSR or China.  They are calling the shots and taking privileges. 

    • #19
  20. GrannyDude Member
    GrannyDude
    @GrannyDude

    I have what is probably a stupid question: 

     

    Could Trump simply eliminate the Department of Education? 

    Or…could Trump fire, say, all the top people at the CIA? 

    Not “should he” but could he? 

    Who actually has the power to hire and fire bureaucrats? 

    • #20
  21. Old Bathos Member
    Old Bathos
    @OldBathos

    GrannyDude (View Comment):

    I have what is probably a stupid question:

     

    Could Trump simply eliminate the Department of Education?

    Or…could Trump fire, say, all the top people at the CIA?

    Not “should he” but could he?

    Who actually has the power to hire and fire bureaucrats?

    Tough for a president to fire government workers. Real power to eliminate chunks of the federal government is with Congress. 

    • #21
  22. Franco Member
    Franco
    @Franco

    “It is truly bizarre the extent to which the imaginary fears and vituperation projected upon Donald Trump have told us so much about our real enemies. A guy who is not exactly a paragon of linguistic precision nor addicted to accuracy and verbal precision has nevertheless ushered in a moment of extraordinary clarity.”

    A more concise definition of the situation cannot be found on the entire internet.

    Bravo!

    • #22
  23. Fake John/Jane Galt Coolidge
    Fake John/Jane Galt
    @FakeJohnJaneGalt

    Old Bathos (View Comment):

    I agree that State and CIA are not a significant part of the metastatic fiscal bloat. However, they are centers of power and influence. If they desert allegiance to America as America is understood by normal Americans and instead work on behalf of globalists, revisionists and the new class etc., they can do a lot of damage precisely because of the necessary existence of these agencies.

    This is not a new problem (Think of the State-CIA Alger Hiss fan club demanding that the rubes like Nixon stop thinking that their betters are accountable to them in any way.). But the overt defiance is remarkable. I really don’t have a problem with large scale turnover in these agencies if it clears out the self-important and re-establishes the rule of elected government.

    You guys crack me up.  Talking about what agency or organization in the government needs to be cut back and which ones to allow is exactly the same as discussing which Mafia family, crews, associates within should be reorganized.  

    • #23
  24. Fake John/Jane Galt Coolidge
    Fake John/Jane Galt
    @FakeJohnJaneGalt

    Old Bathos (View Comment):

    I agree that State and CIA are not a significant part of the metastatic fiscal bloat. However, they are centers of power and influence. If they desert allegiance to America as America is understood by normal Americans and instead work on behalf of globalists, revisionists and the new class etc., they can do a lot of damage precisely because of the necessary existence of these agencies.

    This is not a new problem (Think of the State-CIA Alger Hiss fan club demanding that the rubes like Nixon stop thinking that their betters are accountable to them in any way.). But the overt defiance is remarkable. I really don’t have a problem with large scale turnover in these agencies if it clears out the self-important and re-establishes the rule of elected government.

    You guys crack me up.  Talking about what agency or organization in the government needs to be cut back and which ones to allow is exactly the same as discussing which Mafia family, crews, associates within should be reorganized.  

    • #24
  25. CarolJoy, Above Top Secret Coolidge
    CarolJoy, Above Top Secret
    @CarolJoy

    I Walton (View Comment):

    I think more folks are figuring this out, but they remain a minority because kids are easily fooled and only the bright ones eventually sort it out. It is not an accident that all societies have always centralized before they die. We must dismember the national school system. If we don’t we lose. It doesn’t matter what we replace it with as long as it’s decentralized, run by parents and independent teachers, not centralized educators and politicians. And we must fix immigration. The schools are easier to fix.

    Right now, I think it is safe to say that the schools in some places are easier to fix. I think it was Friday night, Nov 1st 2019 when Shannon Bream’s show on Fox cable began letting  the public in on a dirty little secret: the new wave of liberal protests is focusing on the wrongness of any type of honor classes, or advanced studies classes, as those classes are steeped in racial profiling that leaves  people of color behind.

    So naturally there are calls to disband such classes in our nation’s junior and regular High Schools. After all, this is important because, um, well, please P-l-e-a-s-e  don’t expect me to explain such travesties!

    The places where this movement is most likely to succeed will be places like New York City and its liberal suburbs, as well as San Francisco and its liberal suburbs.

    I also just received a quite lengthy reply to something I was discussing on Facebook, to the effect that the writer wanted me to understand how difficult it is to home school a child. No it is not difficult for a parent who can afford to remain at home and undertake the child or children’s education – if that parent were left to their own devices. But apparently most states as well as the Fed government now have all these regulations. So apparently  each day of each week, there is some test that the parent must involve their pupil(s) in, or else face being punished. (The writer did not explain what happens to a parent who doesn’t obey.)

    So we really need to limit the various states as they seek to insert themselves into the lives of home  schoolers.

    Private schools also are finding themselves having to deal with various codes and standards imposed on them by the Feds and the state agencies.

    ####

    • #25
  26. Samuel Block Support
    Samuel Block
    @SamuelBlock

    CarolJoy, Above Top Secret (View Comment):

    I Walton (View Comment):

    The schools are easier to fix.

    Right now, I think it is safe to say that the schools in some places are easier to fix. I think it was Friday night, Nov 1st 2019 when Shannon Bream’s show on Fox cable began letting the public in on a dirty little secret: the new wave of liberal protests is focusing on the wrongness of any type of honor classes, or advanced studies classes, as those classes are steeped in racial profiling that leaves people of color behind.

    So naturally there are calls to disband such classes in our nation’s junior and regular High Schools. After all, this is important because, um, well, please P-l-e-a-s-e don’t expect me to explain such travesties!

    The places where this movement is most likely to succeed will be places like New York City and its liberal suburbs, as well as San Francisco and its liberal suburbs.

    I also just received a quite lengthy reply to something I was discussing on Facebook, to the effect that the writer wanted me to understand how difficult it is to home school a child. No it is not difficult for a parent who can afford to remain at home and undertake the child or children’s education – if that parent were left to their own devices. But apparently most states as well as the Fed government now have all these regulations. So apparently each day of each week, there is some test that the parent must involve their pupil(s) in, or else face being punished. (The writer did not explain what happens to a parent who doesn’t obey.)

    So we really need to limit the various states as they seek to insert themselves into the lives of home schoolers.

    Private schools also are finding themselves having to deal with various codes and standards imposed on them by the Feds and the state agencies.

    ####

    Man, it’s like these people are desperately trying to lose support from the poorer communities. Generally, this self-segregation of classes allows kids interested in pursuing higher-Ed, and maybe an education, to actually do so, while the kids who do not want to, don’t really have to. 

    I mean, this could probably get the teachers riled up. AP and IB programs were used in my town to encourage further integration. I’m surprised the resistance they got after fighting school choice didn’t teach them the lesson. And they wonder how Trump did well with the Black and Hispanic communities.

    • #26
  27. CarolJoy, Above Top Secret Coolidge
    CarolJoy, Above Top Secret
    @CarolJoy

    Samuel Block (View Comment):

    CarolJoy, Above Top Secret (View Comment):

    I Walton (View Comment):

    The schools are easier to fix.

    Right now, I think it is safe to say that the schools in some places are easier to fix. I think it was Friday night, Nov 1st 2019 when Shannon Bream’s show on Fox cable began letting the public in on a dirty little secret: the new wave of liberal protests is focusing on the wrongness of any type of honor classes, or advanced studies classes, as those classes are steeped in racial profiling that leaves people of color behind.

    So naturally there are calls to disband such classes in our nation’s junior and regular High Schools. After all, this is important because, um, well, please P-l-e-a-s-e don’t expect me to explain such travesties!

    The places where this movement is most likely to succeed will be places like New York City and its liberal suburbs, as well as San Francisco and its liberal suburbs.

    I also just received a quite lengthy reply to something I was discussing on Facebook, to the effect that the writer wanted me to understand how difficult it is to home school a child. No it is not difficult for a parent who can afford to remain at home and undertake the child or children’s education – if that parent were left to their own devices. But apparently most states as well as the Fed government now have all these regulations. So apparently each day of each week, there is some test that the parent must involve their pupil(s) in, or else face being punished. (The writer did not explain what happens to a parent who doesn’t obey.)

    So we really need to limit the various states as they seek to insert themselves into the lives of home schoolers.

    Private schools also are finding themselves having to deal with various codes and standards imposed on them by the Feds and the state agencies.

    ####

    Man, it’s like these people are desperately trying to lose support from the poorer communities. Generally, this self-segregation of classes allows kids interested in pursuing higher-Ed, and maybe an education, to actually do so, while the kids who do not want to, don’t really have to.

    I mean, this could probably get the teachers riled up. AP and IB programs were used in my town to encourage further integration. I’m surprised the resistance they got after fighting school choice didn’t teach them the lesson. And they wonder how Trump did well with the Black and Hispanic communities.

    Trump received a mere ten percent of the AA vote in Nov 2016. Currently he holds 42% support among black men.

    As far as teachers getting riled up, I think  there is such a  wall between teachers and Administrators right now that teachers probably feel  if they get riled up and show it, they will be kicked to the floor.

    • #27
  28. MichaelKennedy Inactive
    MichaelKennedy
    @MichaelKennedy

    I Walton (View Comment):
    The CIA is a strange place being battled by politicians for decades, split between operatives and analysts. I’m not sure what to do about it other than shrink it and provide tough politicly conservative leadership but leadership that knows the agency and foreign policy reality. Neither the CIA or State are responsible for the mess in Washington.

    Disagree.  CIA and State are the heart of the Deep State.  The other agencies are just bloated bureaucracies  but CIA, especially, is dangerous and almost uncontrollable.  It is run  by people who think they are most qualified, in spite of CIA’s history of almost unlimited failure.  Kim Philby and James Angleton were good friends. Angleton had a very hard time accepting that he had been betrayed by his friend.  Aldrich Ames finished off the few agents we had that accomplished anything.  The recent history of losing the entire agent strings in China and Iran illustrate the incompetence.  CIA incompetence probably saves us from worse.

    • #28
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