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Marcus Aurelius was Emperor of the Roman Empire in 161 and ruled for nearly two decades until his death in 180. His book Meditations (originally titled “To Himself”) is not only one of greatest books ever written but perhaps the only book of its kind. It is the definitive text on self-discipline, personal ethics, humility, self-actualization and strength.
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When Nixon was accused in Watergate the antipathy towards him drove the nation to haunt him why not the same now?
Has constant corruption dulled our sense of impropriety or is it only members of the Republican Party who stir vituperation and spill over anger?
And, then there is Fetterman:
Sen. John Fetterman garbles words, wears baggy shorts with Joe Biden in Philadelphia
By Mary Kay Linge
Sen. John Fetterman dressed for a day on a basketball court Saturday to greet President Biden in Philadelphia — then stumbled over his words as he spoke to the media.
The Pennsylvania Democrat, in baggy shorts, sneakers, and a light blue hoodie, was unable to pronounce words such as “delegation” and “infrastructure” as he made a garbled one-minute statement after Biden toured the collapsed I-95 overpass that has snarled traffic throughout the northeast
“This is a president that is committed to infructure,” said Fetterman, 53, who continues to grapple with the effects of a stroke he suffered last May as he campaigned for his Senate seat.
Biden, he said, “is here to commit to work with the governor and the delegadation to make sure that we get this fixed quick, fast, as well, too.”
The freshman senator also praised Biden’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, calling it “the jewel, kind of a law, of the infra, infration, infriction bill that is gonna make sure that there’s bridges like this all across America getting rebuilt.”
Sen. John Fetterman dressed for a day on a basketball court to greet President Biden in Philadelphia.AP
FETTERMAN: "[Biden] is here to commit to work with the governor and the delegadation to make sure that we get this fixed quick, fast, as well, too. This is a president that is committed to infructure, yeah, and then on top of that the jewel kind of a law of the infration." pic.twitter.com/9kBdp9MKK7
Biden — dressed, like most of the officials in attendance, in suit and tie — did not visibly react to Fetterman’s painful phrasing.
“A real show of farce,” Charlotte A snarked on Twitter.
On Wednesday, Fetterman struggled to discuss the accident during a meeting of the Senate Environment Committee after committee chairman Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del) invited him to speak.
“Uh no, I – uh, would just, um, really like to, you know — the 95, 95, 95. You know?” Fetterman began, later calling I-95 a “major atery” for the nation.
+++It has taken decades but most everything I feared/predicted has come to pass. Government is too big, agencies are inhabited with those who are unelected and politically of one mind. and Furthermore, they control the work Congress does and that makes them dangerous, and so it goes:
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How to Arrest the Government
Trump’s indictment puts pressure on GOP aspirants to propose sweeping reforms.
By Kimberley A. Strassel
J
In seeking an unprecedented federal indictment against a former president, the Justice Department carelessly issued an additional arrest warrant: its own. Republicans are no longer simply moaning about “weaponized government” and the unaccountable swamp. They are making complete overhaul a campaign priority.
Most of the press continues obsessing over the GOP primary field’s response to Donald Trump’s indictment, presenting it as an impossible bind. How can they get any airtime amid another Trump show? How do they hit the former president without alienating the base? The first debate is still two months away, the first caucus seven, but it’s never too early for this crew to paint Republican fortunes as grim.
Lost in this non-analysis is that the indictment handed the entire field a powerful issue: root-and-branch government reform. The Trump presidency was roiled by a partisan FBI investigation, nonstop leaks, endless bureaucratic sabotage. Republicans have complained about a two-million-strong federal civil service that has been hostile to GOP presidents since Ronald Reagan, yet failed to make a priority of change. The indictment was the straw that broke the elephant’s back, the kick the party needed to get serious.
Nearly every notable contender—Mike Pence, Tim Scott, Ron DeSantis—has already vowed to fire the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Christopher Wray, in response to alarming stories of investigations into protesting parents, Catholics and pro-life groups as well as election interference. Mr. Scott says he’d go further and dismiss all political appointees at the FBI. Nikki Haley suggests something more sweeping: “Getting rid of just senior management isn’t going to be enough to fix this. This is going to take a complete overhaul.”
Unsurprisingly, a very detailed—and far more aggressive—plan is coming from energetic entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, whose warnings about the unelected bureaucracy have been a central campaign feature from the start. He pledges to dismantle the Education Department, which “should not have existed in the first place.” He’d shut down agencies whose “culture . . . cannot be reformed”—including the FBI and the Internal Revenue Service—and replace them with entities that are “built for purpose” and answer to the president. He’d fire “a good portion” of the federal bureaucracy, ignoring civil-service protections that he believes are unconstitutional. He wants an eight-year term limit on federal civil-servant positions. (Ms. Haley has also called for limits.)
Mr. Ramaswamy is getting a rival in the policy-innovation department in Mr. DeSantis, who this week started to roll out his “day one” plan to revamp all of government. According to a RealClearPolitics report, the Florida governor in a weekend strategy session said that in addition to firings, he plans to reorganize entire agencies, which will include limiting and refocusing the roles of both the Justice Department and the FBI. It will also include breaking up federal agencies (including Justice) and shipping them to other parts of the country (doubling down on a few similar small moves during the Trump administration).
The report suggests Mr. DeSantis will also face down civil-service protections: “If you’re performing poorly, you should be fired. It doesn’t matter if you’re a bureaucrat or if you’re a political appointee.” He’ll put a renewed focus on finding leakers—who will face instant termination—and potentially revoke the security clearances of former intelligence officials who cash in as talking heads.
Mr. Trump in 2020 passed on making government overhaul a campaign priority, though this March he issued a 10-point plan to “dismantle the deep state.” It led with broad promises to “clean out” “corrupt actors” and overhaul “weaponized” institutions, while also pledging to create a “Truth and Reconciliation Commission” to expose hoaxes; to make inspectors general more independent; and to move more agencies out of Washington. Yet by this week, in the wake of his indictment, Mr. Trump seemed more interested in channeling existing abuses of power to his own benefit, promising to appoint a “real special prosecutor” to “go after” the “entire Biden crime family.”
Expect to see far more and detailed proposals from the GOP field, given how much material there now is to draw from. As the administrative state has run amok, serious policy thinkers have drilled for solutions. Authors like Philip K. Howard (“Not Accountable”) and former Interior Secretary David Bernhardt (“You Report to Me”) offer books outlining strong reforms; conservative think tanks are sitting on reams of paper; red-state reforms highlight successes and pitfalls. Name a problem in the federal government, and there’s already an innovative plan for solving it.
In the aftermath of the Trump indictment, every credible aspirant for the Republican nomination will be expected to have a vision to take control of a federal apparatus that has been on autopilot for decades. Thanks, Joe Biden and Merrick Garland. Your overreach has finally produced a GOP determined to make sure the excesses stop.
And
Charter Schools: New Evidence of Student Success
A nationwide Stanford study shows huge learning gains over union schools.
By The Editorial Board
School choice is gaining momentum nationwide, and charter schools are a large part of the movement. A new study shows that these independently run public schools are blowing away their traditional school competition in student performance.
Stanford’s Center for Research on Education Outcomes (Credo) report is the third in a series (2009, 2013, 2023) tracking charter-school outcomes over 15 years. The study is one of the largest ever conducted, covering over two million charter students in 29 states, New York City and Washington, D.C., and a control group in traditional public schools.
Credo’s judgment is unequivocal: Most charter schools “produce superior student gains despite enrolling a more challenging student population.” In reading and math, “charter schools provide their students with stronger learning when compared to the traditional public schools.” The nationwide gains for charter students were six days in math and 16 days in reading.
The comparisons in some states are more remarkable. In New York, charter students were 75 days ahead in reading and 73 days in math compared with traditional public-school peers. In Illinois they were 40 days ahead in reading and 48 in math. In Washington state, 26 days ahead in reading and 39 in math. Those differences can add up to an extra year of learning across an entire elementary education.
Credo’s first study in 2009 found that charters didn’t yield better student outcomes—and has long been cited by charter opponents. Teachers unions often claim charters and choice programs betray public education because they cherry-pick children and fail to serve those in greatest need. Credo’s results should also end that discussion.
The latest study shows that black and Hispanic students had some of the largest gains and that they “advance more than their TPS peers by large margins in math and reading.” Ditto for children in poverty. Unions should also read the section on what Credo calls “gap-busting schools,” which show black and Hispanic students succeeding as well as white peers. Credo says this shows that “learning gaps between student groups are not structural or inevitable.”
Not all charters are created equal, and the study shows a growing advantage in results for schools run by charter management organizations, which operate multiple schools. This is likely the result of a learning curve that can be applied to many locations. Around 15% of charters underperform their local public school, but lackluster charters are closed, unlike failing union schools.
This Credo installment covers 2015-2019 before the pandemic. With each new report, student progress has climbed further and the long lens of the study shows that charter schools are getting better. The Credo report may even understate the success of some charter schools. In the case of Ohio, the Credo methodology dilutes the strong results of brick-and-mortar charter schools by including remote schools and other specialized schools in its results. A 2020 Fordham Institute analysis of Ohio charter schools showed strong gains.
In a better world, results like this would trigger a movement to expand charters and increase their funding. But that won’t happen as widely as it should because unions will fight to keep up their near-monopoly. Washington state has only 17 charter schools serving about 4,700 students, well under its legal cap of 40 schools, according to the Mountain States Policy Center. The real reason the unions object to more is that charter learning proves there’s no excuse for failing children.
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Once upon a time the government had a vast scrap yard in the middle of a desert.
Congress said, "Someone may steal from it at night." So they created a Night Watchman position and hired a person for the job.
Then Congress said, "How does the watchman do his job without instruction?" So they created a planning department and hired two people, one person to write the instructions, and one person to do time studies.
Then Congress said, "How will we know the night watchman is doing the tasks correctly?" So they created a Quality Control department and hired two people. One was to do the studies and one was to write the reports.
Then Congress said, "How are these people going to get paid?" So they created two positions: a time keeper and a payroll officer then hired two people.
Then Congress said, "Who will be accountable for all of these people?" So they created an administrative section and hired three people, an Administrative Officer, Assistant Administrative Officer, and a Legal Secretary.
Then Congress said, "We have had this command in operation for one year and we are $918,000 over budget, we must cut back." So they laid off the night watchman.
NOW slowly, let it sink in.
Does anybody remember the reason given for the establishment of the DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY during the Carter administration?
No? Didn't think so! The bottom line is, we've spent several hundred billion dollars in support of an agency, the reason for which very few people who read this can remember!
Ready??
It was very simple... and at the time, everybody thought it very appropriate. The Department of Energy was instituted on 8/04/1977, TO LESSEN OUR DEPENDENCE ON FOREIGN OIL.
Hey, pretty efficient, huh???
And now it's 2022 - 45 years later - and the budget for this "necessary" Department is at $242 Billion a year. It has 16,000 federal employees and approximately 100,000 contract employees. And look at the job it has done!
THIS IS WHERE YOU SLAP YOUR FOREHEAD AND SAY, "WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?"
34 years ago, 30% of our oil consumption was foreign imports. Today 70% of our oil consumption is foreign imports.
Ah, yes -- good old Federal bureaucracy.
Now we have turned over the banking system, education, health care, and the automobile industry (along with many others) to the same government.
What can possibly go wrong?
Hello!! Anybody Home?
Signed.... The Night Watchman
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