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2023-05-19 07:00 by Karl Denninger
in Musings , 476 references Ignore this thread
It Is Not A Swamp
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It is an occupying force.

And like all occupying forces it has two characteristics:

  • It gatekeeps for everyone else not part of it.  That is, said occupying force prevents the free flow of commerce and people from one place to another via all means both fair and foul.

  • It requires sustenance without which it will die.

The second is its Achilles heel.

You see, an occupying force does not have either the means or the willingness to create its own necessities of life.  In the modern era this is more than just food and shelter; it is also money, energy sources of all sorts, transportation and the means of both defense and offense, all of which said occupying force thinks you are obligated to provide.

By what means is such an obligation to be enforced when you outnumber them by more than 100:1?

It truly amazes me when I read of such rank corruption as was revealed by the Durham Report.  Yes, I read the whole thing.  That was why my article on it posted a day after it was made available rather than earlier; unlike the various hyperventilating media people who could not have possibly read the entire report first and thus were stenographers for someone behind the curtain I did read it, just as I read the PPACA Bill ("Obamacare") before it was passed and before I opined on it.

Meanwhile the FBI is allegedly going to get a new headquarters building because, you see, rewarding corruption with a few billion dollars of public money -- that is, from you -- is also ok and thus their base of operations and reach of said corruption must be expanded.

Right?

Isn't it interesting that people talk about simply "protesting."  Well, maybe peaceful and maybe not, ala summer of 2020 when it was allegedly too dangerous to be able to hike in a national park yet it was perfectly safe to loot and burn businesses in downtown Minneapolis.

One was good for a $5,000 fine -- the other you got a pat on the back and the media calling same a "mostly-peaceful" protest.

All Americans had to do to stop any or all of this stupidity is cut off the supplies.

No violence required and, I remind you, its not illegal to refuse to labor.  It can't be; we passed a Constitutional Amendment on that point about 150 years ago if I recall correctly.

Of course this means you might have to go without some things too.

And that gets to the crux of the matter, doesn't it?

You apparently do not care about the corruption even when it screws you; as long as its indirect you don't believe it exists at all!  The inflation of the last couple of years and the rank fraud related to countermeasures for a virus that, on balance was nearly harmless to anyone healthy and under 50 and while quite dangerous to some most who were at highest risk made themselves so through their deliberate personal actions didn't hurt enough it would appear.

After all nobody has done anything to put a stop to either happening again, have they?

Meanwhile we think its perfectly good that your children in second grade can check out a library book at school describing explicit sexual acts but reading parts of that same book to a school board meeting is deemed obscene.

You'll have to pardon me if I stop caring about your kids if you don't care enough about them to expect that their teacher can actually make change for a $20 in their head, or cares enough about his or her health to be reasonably healthy and thus willing to accept the basic, inescapable risk when engaged in the task of teaching children who always have been and always will be little germ factories simply because their immune system has had less time and training in this world.  This is a known risk of the profession just as it is a known risk of being a parent and should never be cause to impose on said kids -- if you can't accept the inherent risk of the job then you should go do something else.

I hear repeatedly how terrible of a person I am if I express the belief that every illegal alien in this nation should be deported immediately and, until we can get to them neither they or their offspring should have any access of any sort to any taxpayer-funded anything.  Yes, I understand that under the law those born here are citizens.  But coming here illegally and then having a child does not confer citizenship on the parents by that very same Constitution and since abandoning a child is felony abuse mommy and/or daddy must go and, by any reasonable interpretation they must take the kid with them or be charged with said felony and forever barred from re-entry into the United States.  Explain this choice to them and let them choose.

To allow otherwise is to allow children to be exploited by a criminal enterprise and that is the very definition of child abuse just as it is if a drug dealer uses a baby as a human shield when in a gunfight over who gets to sell dope on a street corner.

We have a problem with affordability of housing and reasonable wages, particularly for young people starting out and desiring to create families.  This, I remind you, is an essential element of the continuation of society: Without it when you die that's all there is and the nation and its people are finished.  That may be abstract and diffuse to you but it certainly isn't to the young couple who has their available wages suppressed by illegal labor and their housing costs jacked to the moon by the same illegal labor as it places demand pressure on the available housing supply.

Were you personally assaulted by the FBI and DOJ in their most-recent schemes with regard to Hunter Biden and Trump before that prior to and during the 2016 election?  No.  Flynn was, however, and so were many others -- often at literal gunpoint.  At the same time Hillary literally ran an illegal classified document storage device in her home bathroom and neither the FBI or DOJ did a thing about it.  When challenged she and her staff physically destroyed evidence by taking hammers to cellphones to prevent the recovery of said data.  Did anyone get prosecuted for that?  No.

But that an injury to you and this nation was or is diffuse doesn't mean it didn't happen and didn't have an impact on you.

It did.

Your local hospital took monstrous "incentive payments" for patients with a specific disease -- provided they followed whatever protocol the CDC and NIH demanded.  It didn't matter if any of it worked or what the results were like.  Our local county hospital -- the only one here in the county and thus by the public data our State published daily -- had almost 9 out of 10 admissions for said condition across a six month period in the back half of 2021 leave in a pine box.  They got paid their bonuses anyway and thus so did their employees, and let me remind you that the medical system is one of the largest employers virtually everywhere.

Those payments irrespective of failure rather than only paying for success and keeping people out of these expensive institutions in turn drove up price pressure on cars, housing, hospitality services and even groceries because that's just how supply and demand works.  If you think the cost of all those travel nurses at two, three, four or five times what an employee nurse costs was vapor and didn't screw you personally you're flat-out nuts.

The injury everyone else suffered as a result of these schemes, even though you personally did not wind up dead and perhaps nobody you knew did either still hit you directly in the wallet and continues to do so to this day.

There is not a "swamp" in both the State and Federal governments.

It is an occupying force that gives not one whit for the Constitution and its constraints, in fact is full of people with guns and yet it requires exactly zero violence to stop it, other than possibly entirely-lawful and justified acts of self-defense if they were to choose to initiate force to steal from you at gunpoint when you simply say in response to their demand to produce something for them one single word: "NO!"

Stopping them and dismantling this requires only starving them of the ability to acquire anything they cannot or will not personally make on their own by simply refusing to provide it.  None of them are capable of producing what they need to continue to survive -- food, fuel, power, clean water, sewage treatment, communications and similar -- on their own.  Do you really think Lori Lightfoot could grow her own food or generate her own electricity?  Could Congress?  How about your Governor, State Legislature or Mayor?

Contemplate what would have happened if in response to every single demand for a mandate of any sort over the last three years the response was one word: NO.

"Wear a mask!" - NO.
"Take a shot!" - NO.
"Show up at 5:00 AM to stock shelves while the guy next door is smoking bongs and hurling empty beer bottles out the window because we are paying him $600 a week to stay home out of YOUR tax money!" - NO.

How long would the "mandates" have lasted if, in response to "close the bars and restaurants" all the grocery workers, power company workers, the people running the water and sewer plant and similar walked off the job and said "we'll come back when we can go with our friends to the bar for a beer after work exactly as we have done for the last 20+ years, no mitigations and no excuses, and not one second before"?

How long would the nonsense with the FBI and DOJ persist if the people of this nation refused to supply any federal employee or agency with anything -- yes, I do mean anything -- until and unless this crap stopped?  Oh sure, there are some who would try to step in and do so but there aren't enough of them if the majority of the population was tired of this and simply refused to labor -- at all -- until it stopped.  Indeed if even ten percent of the population had done so it would have been over within days.

And how long would the illegal invasion continue if nobody would give a job, a place to stay or so much as a loaf of bread to anyone who was here illegally in the United States?  Yes, some would because they profit from it (duh) so target those who do that and exclude them too as accessories after the fact to said unlawful acts.

You think not?

beer company found out that mocking women cost them 25% of their sales -- and counting.  How many of those government officials would keep it up as the days, weeks and months went on and a quarter or more of everything they wanted and tried to buy they simply didn't get because the person they tried to get it from told them to pound sand?

Don't tell me "you can't do it" or "that wouldn't do anything" when you just saw it happen with something so trivial as a brand of beer.

The word NO is the most-powerful in the English language.

Especially when you have a 300:1 -- or more -- numerical advantage.

If, that is, you use it.

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Crossthread 13k posts, incept 2007-09-04
2023-05-19 07:43:36

Great Culmination of several tickers you've written, over the past 2 years..

Bravo!

When DeeCee was fenced off, Occupied by several thousand, "US" troop(s)..
I wanted to shout then..

Coup de tat!

We allowed this too happen, We can only blame ourselves.

Until there is "action" or more Importantly; NON-Action..

We as a Nation, deserve the Boffing We get..

smiley

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Everyone of us are ignorant, its just we specialize our ignorance on different subjects.

The only walls that will confine you are the ones that you build yourself
Seektruth 1k posts, incept 2007-09-01
2023-05-19 07:43:43

You are of course completely correct. But IMHO there is no chance of this happening. I've tried talking this exact course of action to people over the past few years...not a single one would even consider it. They have every excuse you can think of. My closing statement then was that you can either sacrifice some now to change the path we are on, or you can lose it all later.

I'm ready to stop feeding the invading force...but who else is other than the few like minded people here? We collectively are choosing to lose it all later (and that later may come faster than most realize).

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Truth is out of style.
Neal 317 posts, incept 2014-01-09
2023-05-19 07:46:18

Not to be nit picky but didnt the 14th regulate and restrict slavery rather than abolish it? So the government can force prisoners to labour and as you are all committing 3 felonies a day they can arrest you and once convicted you are effectively slaves. So they have workarounds if you go on a labour strike.
Or they just get the tens of millions of illegals to do their bidding, or make the tens of millions on the government tit do some labour for their handout . Considering the illegals and the welfare tit hangers on, plus all the government workers, contractors etc etc and your 100:1 ratio is more like 1:1. Depressing reality.
Neal 317 posts, incept 2014-01-09
2023-05-19 07:56:28

I mean 13th not 14th Amendment
Msbeaty 24 posts, incept 2022-10-01
2023-05-19 08:03:41

I have often wondered about this same concept, especially with energy companies and states that are not friendly to their interests. If oil companies companies or power producers would refuse to export their products to someplace like California, it would be crippled in a matter of hours. As you often opine here, behind every unit of GDP is a unit of energy. Unlike many products, power in particular, is an on demand item with essentially zero stored. A curtailment electricity or gasoline would show up very quick in the market and in an impactful way.

Over the course of the past year, we have had a few 8+ hour power outages. Just in my residential neighborhood people were so unprepared. Not only did they not have plans, but they had no resiliency. Even with only moderate temperatures, neighbors were leaving their houses to check into hotels because they were uncomfortable. This is after only 8 hours during spring weather!!

Most likely, the denser the population center, the quicker the effects. I would be hard pressed to imagine that any major city would not be completely feral after only 24-48 hours of no power.

Reason: Typos
Shadowmask 5k posts, incept 2021-05-24
2023-05-19 08:06:16

🐑🐑🐑🐑

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The learning curve for being dead is steep, but everyone gets it down pat on the first go usually.--Thystra, March 28, 2023
Tickerguy 195k posts, incept 2007-06-26
2023-05-19 08:06:11

Water/sewer interruption will get people's attention VERY rapidly in a city.

Shit DOES flow downhill.

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The difference between "kill" and "murder" is that murder, as a subset of kill, is undeserved by the deceased.
Lewfalo 54 posts, incept 2023-03-09
2023-05-19 08:32:53

This is powerful and inspiring. I can't relate to people that don't get fired up from truths like these.

We have examples very recently that this works. Trudeau knocked it off when people started withdrawing money from banks, after he threatened to seize the bank accounts of folks who donated to the trucker protestors. Notice it wasn't the protest that stopped it, it was the average person withdrawing THEIR money from the banks.

Same happened in Israel over the judicial reform. The outcome is still pending, but there were protests for weeks, then a general strike from major employers, unions, banks, even the military. Shit ended in less than one week.

If people think they have little left to lose then some of them will get brave, not just angry. We aren't there yet. But I'm actually more optimistic than I've been in years, because it doesn't take any where near the majority to be brave (fuck the majority, honestly) it takes 10% of productive people just to say "NO". Some of the corny old sayings are true -- darkest before dawn, bark is worse than their bite, it's not over till it's over, etc. Covid was the peak of their power, I believe. It's only downhill from there for the occupiers.
Invisiblesun 733 posts, incept 2020-04-08
2023-05-19 08:37:47

A coup was effected in 2020, the components of which were put in place in the preceding 20 years. The planners covered all the bases. They had the propaganda control with all opposition messaging relegated to the "fringes". They had institutional control with even courts and churches backing the totalitarian overreach.


And the topper was the monetary control. They paid people to not work! They paid hospitals to murder! They paid media to push the jab and they financially punished institutions that wouldn't push the jab.

Here is how devastatingly effective the coup was: The person most responsible for enabling the coup was Trump and the coup removed Trump from office. Trump did himself in! And yet Trump is favored to win the GOP nomination for the 2024 presidential race. How bat crazy can people be? How manipulated can people be? And yet this is where we are.

I don't know how much longer the rot can go on. The public schools are in ruins - kids being taught Marxist lies and programmed to never assume responsibility for their success. The next generation of Americans is misfits with at least a quarter of them mentally ill. The foreigners invading the country include the best of Asia and the lowest recruits out of 3rd world nations. It is impossible to have a unified nation with this mix of people, which is what the occupying force desires.

So much is obviously broken in our society and economy - anecdotally I have been waiting 8 weeks for a Toyota car part! How many others have machines breaking that cannot be fixed in a timely manner because they lack parts, or they lack a repairman.

But AI and computer chips will save us all! We are in a new bull market because computers are able to do our kids homework. How about we get a machine to make the right number of parts? How about having machines that work? Or is that asking too much?
Nelstomlinson 883 posts, incept 2011-12-21
2023-05-19 09:11:20

This reminds me of the ants and the grasshoppers in Bugs Life.
Veeger 1k posts, incept 2013-02-13
2023-05-19 09:11:25

@Neal

Quote:

Or they just get the tens of millions of illegals to do their bidding,


Do you REALLY think these millions of illegals have the skill, interest or work ethic to do ANYONE's bidding?
They are useless eaters who will rampage when they aren't fed, housed and watered. At which point we'll see what the media and pollytishens will call 'white supremacy' at work.

There will be bodies in the street...

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I remember the Diamond Princess.


Slowly at first, then all of a sudden.
Cmoledor 2k posts, incept 2021-04-13
2023-05-19 09:32:20

Beautiful. Just beautiful. That is the crux of it as you say. We arent willing to go without to stop it. We dont want to sacrifice anything.

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The whole world is one big fucking scam
Full throttle till the end. Ocdawg
Take the stick you tried to beat me with and go fuck your own face. Ishmael
Moconserv 646 posts, incept 2013-02-13
2023-05-19 09:56:39

@ Cmoledor - "We arent willing to go without to stop it. We dont want to sacrifice anything." So true and yet the irony is in the end we will all have nothing.

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Embrace the suck.
Cmoledor 2k posts, incept 2021-04-13
2023-05-19 10:05:53

Exactly moco. We either choose to sacrifice or be forced to sacrifice. Both are going to hurt. There is no other way I believe.

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The whole world is one big fucking scam
Full throttle till the end. Ocdawg
Take the stick you tried to beat me with and go fuck your own face. Ishmael
Bluto 2k posts, incept 2021-07-10
2023-05-19 10:58:28

One very simple method of accomplishing this is to monitor every dollar you spend, and first ask the question "is this supporting the enemy?"

If it is, don't spend that dollar, or spend it somewhere else. This has the side benefit of reducing your operating expenses, which helps you financially in the long run. But more importantly, it cuts off the enemy.

It doesn't take an entity losing 100% of their income or resources. Most businesses can be broken with only a 10% or 20% loss for a number of reasons, one of which being they are leveraged. And if they aren't leveraged, losing that much business puts them in a downward spiral that is often not recoverable. A 20% revenue cut takes a company making a 10% profit, and puts them 10% in the red. That means no raises, a hiring freeze, and potential layoffs, which further reduces morale. Which reduces productivity, which further decreases profits. It is a vicious loop. Don't take your foot off the pedal. STOP spending money with these entities.

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"You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end -- which you can never afford to lose -- with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever
Bluto 2k posts, incept 2021-07-10
2023-05-19 11:13:09

I am amazed at how many Americans submit to this "occupying army". In a previous generation, the phrase "occupying army" invoked images of Soviet armored divisions a la "Red Dawn". Or three very-pale intergalactic scalawags a la "Superman".

But take a look at our "occupying army". Most are severely obese. Most are below average IQ. Many don't even know if they are "male" or "female". They don't understand basic physics. They know little of history. They have NO useful skills.

They cannot even control themselves, yet they want to not only control, but dominate you. And you let them do it!

Stop letting these losers and freaks control you. Simply ignore them. Mock them. Don't do business with them. Don't support them financially or emotionally.

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"You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end -- which you can never afford to lose -- with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever
Mrbobo 154 posts, incept 2021-12-01
2023-05-19 11:14:41

I remain pessimistic. We can't even be bothered to say no, let alone prove we mean it.
No one said anything (me included) as the insanity has built to a crescendo over the last 3 decades because generally you were fine as long as you didn't actively protest. Don't bitch about wokeness, DIE, and the like at your corporate job; please take off your shoes and step through the naked scanner and you get to go on your vacation. Excluding my acts of TSA resistance, I did my best to avoid anything resembling activism for or against anything. I hate to simplify it that much, but Coof wars provided the equivalent of an open-book 1 true/false question final exam that with 3 retakes we continue to fail.
Bigdaddy63 446 posts, incept 2008-01-18
2023-05-19 11:26:44

Here's the problem 99% or people don't give a shit what happens to anyone but themselves. This is not a generation where people care about the greater good.

I refused to take the jab and was summarily fired from employment of over 20 years. Not one prior negative review or mark ever. Promoted and in the top 10%. Didnt matter.

Wife is a nurse. Refused to get the jab. Fired. 10 years working her ass off and even front line during the pandemic.

Reached out to both Senators, our Congressperson and Governor. They did NOTHING to help.

Many others who had the same fate talked to attorneys. No one would take the case.

THOUSANDS of people have similar stories. They did nothing wrong. Played by the rules, Pay taxes, raise their kids, but REFUSED to allow the government to mandate injecting a foreign substance in their body. TO THIS DAY no one has come forward to talk about restitution, recourse, or holding people accountable.

Bottom line is Karl our country is no longer the one we knew. It is either Soclialst/Communist and it is never coming back wuthout an armed rebellion as with prior fourth turnings. All this talk of dismantling the FBI/CIA and "deep State" are fairy tales. Those in power will never let the people get the power back voluntarily.

I agree with you in this will eventually reach critical mass. Perhaps when they go to a digital currency and then tell you how much and where you can spend money, or when they mandate EV's and then restrict your travel, or when they start rationiong food, healthcare, etc. We are still a nation of fat, stupid, lazy people for the most part who are content with being told what to do. The few patriots who stand up are stripped of their rights, their freedom, their jobs, or worse. Look at the three brave whistleblowers yesterday. Both the MSM and Democrats vilified them. Love him or hate him, look at what they did to Trump for the last 7 years. SAme for Flynn, Roger Stone, Bannon, etc, etc. Why would anyone risk going through that knowing NO ONE has their back, and nothing will be done.

I pray for the country. We live in dark times.
K5555 149 posts, incept 2021-04-18
2023-05-19 12:44:00

Mrbobo, even well before the vid, when I had to fly for business, I was always the only one stepping out of line for a Freedom-Fondle in lieu of the new testicular fortitude frying backscatter radiation device. Every single time, and no one else ever did.

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Fight like you are the third monkey on the ramp to Noah's Ark and it is starting to rain.
Jack_crabb 16k posts, incept 2010-06-25
2023-05-19 12:44:10

Quote:
I pray for the country. We live in dark times.


I do not disagree with your assessment. The brightest spot, if one is a Christian, is that we know how this story ends.

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Molon Labe
Where is Henry Bowman when you need him?
How many are willing to pledge this? We mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our Sacred Honor
Andrew 195 posts, incept 2014-09-24
2023-05-19 12:44:21

@Bigdaddy63 digital currency might tip things...
But at that point it's far past too late.
Someone tried to warn folk years ago that the gov, if it went full bore tyranny, it'd be difficult to put a stop to anything.
Inline
Whossane 277 posts, incept 2018-01-25
2023-05-19 12:44:26

What does the phrase, "subject to the jurisdiction thereof" mean?
Lewfalo 54 posts, incept 2023-03-09
2023-05-19 12:44:42

@Bigdaddy63

I lost my job of almost 19 years back in 2013. Got fired for insubordination for raising a public stink that children where being abused and nothing was being done about it. The month before I was employee of the year. Went to a lawyer, he told me he'd be happy to take my money but my employer has deep pockets and they get to choose the arbitrator...and do you really want to still work for an organization that abuses kids?

For one year I was depressed, saw no future for myself, had to sell my condo, had cancer two years prior to getting fired (luckily only 1A, and still cancer free to this day) and was then left with no health insurance.

During that year, I met my future wife, she helped me through it all. Getting fired turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to me. I was miserable there, was never true to myself, hated the place, the people, the entire system.

Sure it looks bad now. It won't stay bad forever. The country is a piece of shit. They all are, some more than others. It won't stay as bad a piece of shit forever, it can't. And there are still some people that aren't pieces of shit, they are brave and will fight for what they believe in, we're interacting with each other right now.
Ee4fire 1k posts, incept 2011-03-24
2023-05-19 12:45:24

BINGO!

Living in and around DC all of my life, I have watched this evolve from the time I became politically aware in high school. My HS years were under the Ford and Carter Administrations. Jimmy started two cabinet level agencies, the Depts of Education and Energy.

My HS was in DC and there were children from the diplomatic corps and of politicians and bureucrats in my school. None of them seemed to want for money. I also went to college in DC. Political science majors flock to DC so they can get a job. Usually it was an unpaid internship, on "The Hill". One of the last vestiges of slave labor left in the USA is an unpaid internship for a member of CONgress.

Most of these Poly Sci majors were rabid liberals who wrote "brilliant" op-ed pieces in college newspaper. They were "very liberal" or socialist/progressive points of view. Usually, they were on how conservative and capitalist values were war mongering, racist, harmful to the poor, enslaving, etc. There were a few token conservative opinion writers. Working on the college newspaper most of the staff were of the progressive persuasion. Our moderator was a writer/editor at the Washington Post, which at the time was run by the Graham Family. If you watch any Watergate documentaries or movies usually Katherine Graham and Ben Bradlee's names pop up. The Editorial Board leaned heavily towards the left. You could see where the college educated mind set was going.

The DC area has benefitted very well from gubmint money. So much so, the area has about tripled in population since I was a young skull full of mush as Rush would say. Which is the reason what Karl talks about won't change in the near future. It comes down to money. The government collects and prints so much money it attracts greedy people like a pile of crap attracts flies.

Once the federal government went full throttle into social programs The old Dept of Health, Eduaction, and Welfare (HEW) was added ironically under Eisenhower in 1953. in the 1960's, the whole structure and philosophy of the federal gov't changed. The Great Society Programs under LBJ put HEW on steroids. This also birthed the Dept of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The growth of these agencies had a much larger effect on the growth of gov't then defense spending did to create the Military Industrial Complex Eisenhower warned about.

The EPA was born out of HEW in 1970. Then HEW was split in two in 1979 and became Healt & Humans Services (HHS) and Education. Now you can see how the bureaucracy feeds on itself. It creates a relatively small agency to help fix an actual or perceived problem and then creates more regulations and "solutions" to fix the problems it created through bad solutions. Each time this creates agencies within in these Depts. So, we get more bureaucrats. More bureaucrats mean more gov't contracts to implement these solutions, which really never get solved because it means many bureaucrats lose their reasons for being employed and contractors lose revenue streams. Problems beget solutions which cause more problems, which need more solutions and so on and so on. Fraud, waste and abuse become rampant so the need for more investigation and law enforcement capabilities are needed.

Meanwhile as Karl so eloquently writesthe law enforcement and prosecution arms of the federal gov't grow also. They need a reason to exist.

All of these agencies need people to work for and run them. Years ago, government jobs were more public service and means to make a living. The pay sucked, but the benefits were great. Since then, gov't employees received pay equity so now they make the same or more than their counterparts in the private sector. Gov't jobs tend to attract left leaning people, because no sane person usually last in these positions for long. Now they are away to become wealthy, promote agendas, use power of regulation and investigation to hurt your political adversary, and then get a great pension to reward yourself in retirement.

A political party that craves power and has no morals on how they achieve it, can stack these bureaucratic positions with their cronies and systematically start the process of one party gov't or a socialist/communist state. They control the money and funnel it to their friends through gov't contracts and services. Their friends return the favors by campaign contributions, book deals, honoraria, or high paying cushy jobs after they can collect their gov't pension. They do all this with from the money they collect from the people they want to suppress and control. We are the suckers who end up paying for the loss of our freedom, because too many of our fellow citizens have been lured into the lie of the gov't will provide security and protection from the evil "fascists" who are a danger from the gov't enslaving you.

The lust for power and the taxpayers' money that comes with power are the root of the problems we face. They have no limits on what tactics or methods they will use to keep their power using our money. Nowadays they don't even hide it anymore, because they have dumbed down or bought a large enough percentage of the population who believe and follow them. Where to go from here? Allow it to happen and collapse on itself or use other means? This is the unknown amount of dollars in trillions question.

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(Politicians), 536 commoditized temple monkeys pawing through the ruins of America in search of bribes. (The District of Corruption) works like a vending machine. You put coins in the slot, select yo
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