2024 Presidential Election

[Big8+4-2-2+2-2+4+4]

To me the qualification question is tricky. If you have spent your career in the govt or govt adjacent you aren't qualified in my opinion because they suck at everything they do. The flip side of that is not insanity like picking a guy who has a history of 17 year old lovers or the wife of the boss of a wrestling organization to lead education. It would be wonderful to bring in private sector leaders from fields that are applicable or at least where one could draw parallels but the cabinet picks are frightening in many cases.

This is where I disagree with the premise that everyone in the government sucks.

GPS came out of government research.

NWS is a true public good that gets better every year. Privatizing it will destroy it’s usefulness to the public.

The FAA has made perishing in a plane crash have the same odds as winning the lottery.

Running the government is not at all the same as running a business. How many Fortune 500 companies stay Fortune 500 companies for more than 50 years? Thinking with a business only mindset is the very definition of short term thinking. Short term thinking is the exact reason why the government is running poorly. Consistency and long term planning does not get you votes anymore. The government is only as good as the people running it. I agree the government is too big which makes it hard to move quickly, and also there are many unqualified people in the bureaucracy, but crapping on people that have worked in government for more than a decade is really tarnishing some of the good work that is being done for the public good.

 

[steross]

So are we now also talking about including debating the merits of non-cabinet appointments? If so, that would be a very long discussion. But, I will discuss one non-cabinet. You may not like Kash Patel for ideological reasons, but he is eminently qualified for Director of FBI (senior advisor to DNI; chief of staff to Secretary of Defense; National Security Council; multi-year public defender; trial attorney for DOJ).

It will be interesting to see if Pete Hegseth survives nomination with the claims against him. Does he have the best qualifications for Secretary of Defense — absolutely no. But are his qualifications very similar to previous Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and Leon Panetta — yes.

Also, you probably have legitimate concerns about RFK as Secretary of Health and Human Services. But compare his prior qualifications to the current Secretary Xavier Becerra. RFK’s qualifications are at least even and probably better.

Panetta and Hagel both ran some large organizations prior to becoming defense secretary. My understanding is Hegseth has very little or no experience running any large organization. I don't see these qualifications as similar at all.

 

[steross]

To me the qualification question is tricky. If you have spent your career in the govt or govt adjacent you aren't qualified in my opinion because they suck at everything they do.

This is BS. The government does not suck at everything it does. Are there problems, of course. But, to claim that anyone who has been in government by definition did a bad job is sheer stupidity.

 

[Vakarian74]

To me the qualification question is tricky. If you have spent your career in the govt or govt adjacent you aren't qualified in my opinion because they suck at everything they do. The flip side of that is not insanity like picking a guy who has a history of 17 year old lovers or the wife of the boss of a wrestling organization to lead education. It would be wonderful to bring in private sector leaders from fields that are applicable or at least where one could draw parallels but the cabinet picks are frightening in many cases.

Politics the only job in the entire world people act like knowing what you are doing is a bad thing.

 

[Vakarian74]

This is where I disagree with the premise that everyone in the government sucks.

GPS came out of government research.

NWS is a true public good that gets better every year. Privatizing it will destroy it’s usefulness to the public.

The FAA has made perishing in a plane crash have the same odds as winning the lottery.

Running the government is not at all the same as running a business. How many Fortune 500 companies stay Fortune 500 companies for more than 50 years? Thinking with a business only mindset is the very definition of short term thinking. Short term thinking is the exact reason why the government is running poorly. Consistency and long term planning does not get you votes anymore. The government is only as good as the people running it. I agree the government is too big which makes it hard to move quickly, and also there are many unqualified people in the bureaucracy, but crapping on people that have worked in government for more than a decade is really tarnishing some of the good work that is being done for the public good.

They all hide there head when government does good because they’ve been brainwashed since they were a kid that gubment bad corporations good.

 

[Donnyboy]

This is where I disagree with the premise that everyone in the government sucks.

GPS came out of government research.

NWS is a true public good that gets better every year. Privatizing it will destroy it’s usefulness to the public.

The FAA has made perishing in a plane crash have the same odds as winning the lottery.

Running the government is not at all the same as running a business. How many Fortune 500 companies stay Fortune 500 companies for more than 50 years? Thinking with a business only mindset is the very definition of short term thinking. Short term thinking is the exact reason why the government is running poorly. Consistency and long term planning does not get you votes anymore. The government is only as good as the people running it. I agree the government is too big which makes it hard to move quickly, and also there are many unqualified people in the bureaucracy, but crapping on people that have worked in government for more than a decade is really tarnishing some of the good work that is being done for the public good.

Over 2M people work for the government I'm not crapping on all of them. If you have made a career out of the bloated inefficient version we have now such that you are up for appointed post it's a safer bet you are the bureaucrat that is the problem than the guy/gal giving a school a tour at a national park. Bureaucracies grow or die. None of ours are dying so if you spent your career in govt and reach those inner circles you don't know how to fix problems you know how to grow bureaucracies.

 

[Big8+4-2-2+2-2+4+4]

Over 2M people work for the government I'm not crapping on all of them. If you have made a career out of the bloated inefficient version we have now such that you are up for appointed post it's a safer bet you are the bureaucrat that is the problem than the guy/gal giving a school a tour at a national park. Bureaucracies grow or die. None of ours are dying so if you spent your career in govt and reach those inner circles you don't know how to fix problems you know how to grow bureaucracies.

Then why not search for the people within these institutions who are competent? Problems should be fixed by addressing where the actual work gets done 6 levels down rather than blanket firing random government workers and appointing new ones with zero experience within the organization. We’re throwing out “incompetency” and instilling another type of incompetency. What makes it worse is one sides strategy is to make government bigger while the other’s whole mindset is the government is incompetent, so if those people also make it more incompetent it’s a self fulfilling prophecy and adds more points about how incompetent it is.

 

[cowboyinexile]

Over 2M people work for the government I'm not crapping on all of them. If you have made a career out of the bloated inefficient version we have now such that you are up for appointed post it's a safer bet you are the bureaucrat that is the problem than the guy/gal giving a school a tour at a national park. Bureaucracies grow or die. None of ours are dying so if you spent your career in govt and reach those inner circles you don't know how to fix problems you know how to grow bureaucracies.

So what are the bloated inefficient jobs and what are the real ones?

 

[Donnyboy]

So what are the bloated inefficient jobs and what are the real ones?

I'll just start listing all 2M give me a second......then we can all go through them one by one

 

[Donnyboy]

This is BS. The government does not suck at everything it does. Are there problems, of course. But, to claim that anyone who has been in government by definition did a bad job is sheer stupidity.

I have no reason to not believe you are a good doctor and based on reading your words for over a decade I believe you would approach each patient with your best effort.......no one points to the VA as model of efficiency. I'll bet there are at least 2 admins for every doc associated with the VA.

So Dr. Steross good.......person who has been an admin at the VA for 30 years and crawled up through a maze of red tape probably isn't the one to turn it around seeing as how they have made a career out of the problems.

 

[JTOSU]

We are $36T in debt and debt grows by a $1T now ~ every 100 days….SS is estimated to need a cut in 7 years due to incredible mismanagement….and we have people shocked and/or concerned that people call government inefficient.

 

[steross]

We are $36T in debt and debt grows by a $1T now ~ every 100 days….SS is estimated to need a cut in 7 years due to incredible mismanagement….and we have people shocked and/or concerned that people call government inefficient.

I'm shocked and concerned that you could read this discussion and come up with THAT as a conclusion.
No wonder we are having problems.

 

[steross]

I have no reason to not believe you are a good doctor and based on reading your words for over a decade I believe you would approach each patient with your best effort.......no one points to the VA as model of efficiency. I'll bet there are at least 2 admins for every doc associated with the VA.

So Dr. Steross good.......person who has been an admin at the VA for 30 years and crawled up through a maze of red tape probably isn't the one to turn it around seeing as how they have made a career out of the problems.

Do you really think the inefficiencies at the VA is because of employees that have been there a long time?

 

[Donnyboy]

Do you really think the inefficiencies at the VA is because of employees that have been there a long time?

Yes and no......but if it's all you know or if you thrive to the point you move to the top of an inefficient org you probably aren't the fix

 

[mugatu]

So what are the bloated inefficient jobs and what are the real ones?

The issue I've seen isn't necessarily related to the people. It's been related to required beaurocratic paperwork. The amount of paperwork that is required is often WAY more time consuming than necessary. If that was cut then you could start reducing manpower but simply cutting people because they don't get enough done will end poorly unless the often redundant paperwork is streamlined.

This is what has driven growing civilian workforce in at least some instances. Offices/departments create new reporting, contracting, security, etc paperwork for some reason that requires more people to complete it all.

 

[Pokey]

I have no reason to not believe you are a good doctor and based on reading your words for over a decade I believe you would approach each patient with your best effort.......no one points to the VA as model of efficiency. I'll bet there are at least 2 admins for every doc associated with the VA.

So Dr. Steross good.......person who has been an admin at the VA for 30 years and crawled up through a maze of red tape probably isn't the one to turn it around seeing as how they have made a career out of the problems.

Let’s solve it like they are planning to do in the latest election. Throw out anyone with experience, and replace them with incompetent boobs! You’ll damned sure see a change but in my opinion it won’t be better. But put in a bunch of contrarians in high level positions and Donny can be loud and proud. Burn it all down says the anarchist. Nothing is worth saving huh?

 

[JTOSU]

Thinking with a business only mindset is the very definition of short term thinking.

For some public companies this is potentially true. Certainly there are some short-term decisions to drive stock price. But for most growing companies long-term strategic planning is inherent.

Short term thinking is the exact reason why the government is running poorly. Consistency and long term planning does not get you votes anymore.

This might be the most accurate two sentences posted on this board this year.

 

[PF5]

Woman sentenced in case that sparked Springfield cat rumours

Allexis Ferrell, a US citizen, attacked a cat in a city far from a Haitian immigrant community in Ohio.

www.bbc.com

you can't make this $h!t up...well, parts of it you can...

An American woman whose case was one of the sparks behind a baseless claims about Haitian immigrants has been sentenced to a year in prison for animal cruelty.

Authorities said that Allexis Ferrell, 27, attacked a cat in Canton, Ohio.

Ferrell is a US citizen and the incident happened about 170 miles (270km) away from a large Haitian community in Springfield, Ohio.

Her case was one of several incidents cited online, which fed into rumours about immigrant eating pets. The stories were eventually repeated by President-elect Donald Trump and his vice-presidential running mate, Ohio Senator JD Vance.
...
On 16 August, Canton police responded to a report of a woman smashing a cat’s head with her foot and eating the animal.
...
In several posts online, Ferrell was falsely described as an immigrant.

However, Canton Police told the BBC that they had "not dealt with any complaints of Haitian immigrants at all."

Springfield police also denied the rumours, saying at the time: “There have been no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community.”

Springfield is a city of about 60,000 people in south-west Ohio, where 12,000 to 20,000 Haitian immigrants have settled in recent years, mostly drawn by work in local factories.

Rumours about eating pets circulated in the city earlier this year, before the Canton incident. An unrelated post on Reddit appeared to show a man carrying a dead bird in Columbus, Ohio, and a Facebook message mentioning the rumours was posted on a Springfield crime board.

These disparate stories were grafted together by anti-immigrant and pro-Trump influencers online, forging an unsubstantiated rumour later repeated by Vance online – that foreigners were catching and consuming pets in Springfield.

During the presidential debate in September, Trump said: "In Springfield, they are eating the dogs. The people that came in, they are eating the cats.”

Vance later told CNN that the pet-eating stories were based on “first-hand account of my constituents” but did not provide further details.

The BBC has contacted Vance’s office.

"If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that's what I'm going to do," he told CNN.