I was going to go quietly into the night on inauguration eve. Might have had a glass of wine or scotch and watched the news on PBS.I also watched NBC news the other night. More a force habit than a rational decision. Lester Holt is the anchor of the day at least until something drastic arises from his past. Then he can join Brian Williams in that high priced Siberia of MSNBC.

My final AAARGH moment occurred when his much ballyhooed Trek Across America started in Sacramento. He claimed to be gaining deep insights in cities from west to east. This group of five citizens of the Golden State were each given 10-15 seconds to spill their guts as part of a grand total of 2 1/2 minute segment of the news. Why bother?

Wolf Blitzer of course has his hourly “Breaking News” segments which are more mundane than sensational. Fox News has their “Fox Alert”. Fox seems to be the operative word as everyone from Roger Ailes to Bill O’Reilly are paying out of court millions for trying to bed down the staff. The thought of Roger trying to sidle up to Megan Kelly is beyond disgusting. As I move on remember these are the clowns that are supposed to get the stories right.

This whole Russia thing gets more bizarre by the day. Now let me get this straight. We are ticked off because Russia hacked us. Now can you tell me we don’t hack Russia or China or Germany and in turn no one hacks anyone else? Interfering in our elections? Do you think over the last several decades we have not tried through the CIA et alia to have an effect on elections everywhere from South Viet Nam to Israel to Venezuela to Cuba? Everyone howls in mock horror.

The point I have asked over and over is if we weren’t doing anything wrong then who would really care if our emails were hacked? Debby Wasserman Shultz and the Democratic National Committee was colluding with Hillary’s campaign to bring down Bernie. Donna Brazile was feeding questions to Hillary’s confidantes before the debate. I am sure the Republicans were guilty of the same missteps. Puuuhleaze, do not tell me you think someone is getting a raw deal. John Lewis is a great guy. Just look at what happened to him and what an effect he has had on the civil rights movement. But John, please don’t tell Meet The Press you think this is a vast right wing conspiracy and you cannot accept the outcome. Didn’t look good.

I have told you time and again that Washington is a cesspool. Look at how long pols reside in DC. They all come hoping to change the climate. Many leave in disgust but many find that the forecast of hot and steamy is to their liking. The place oozes influence peddling and hands extended for their largesse. It is slimy to the core. Why else would you pay an average of $11.5 mill to obtain a Senate seat that pays $175,000 per annum? The way they perpetuate their status and wealth is by creating more and more programs that require constant funding and contracting.

 
About 35 out of 435 congressional seats were considered competitive in the last election. Less than 10%. I have railed on about how long they stay. How can you possibly have creative ideas and be open to reducing government if you have been in office for 20, 30, or 40 years? And yet I watch them as they have their day in the sun taking prospective cabinet members to task for this or that. I am by no means an apologist for Trump but rather a critic of our manner of governing.

For example Sen Bob Melendez, who is the senior senator from the great state of New Jersey was grilling Rex Tillerson who would like to be Secretary of State. Now Bobbo has a close personal friend who is an eye doctor in Miami who out of the goodness of his heart gave him at least $750,000 in campaign funds. He also entertained him at his little hacienda in the Dominican Republic. I know you will be shocked but there was ample booze and ample women. No play on words. How would you like to have your sense of right and wrong questioned by this guy?

I derive a great deal of amusement in the goings on. Hollywood is boycotting the festivities as a matter of conscience. People everywhere are snorting their snuff and harrumphing in self righteous indignation. They are offended. Don’t worry, we go through the same soap operas at every swearing in. You didn’t like Obama or Bush or Clinton et al going back 20-30 years.You cry in mock protest. And then we fall back on this crazy sense of ritual and dignity and honor and to that I say, BULL SHIT! I hope you are not taping this.

The message is the same as it was in 2008 and 2012. The public is fed up. They don’t want to be lectured and dismissed. They are tired of being run over by the governmental, financial and academic cognescenti. When it comes to haves and have nots we want to measure by wallets but could just as much turn to grey matter as the standard. Just shut up and do what you are told. We know what we are doing. Unfortunately we are being exposed from Oval offices to Board Rooms to Faculty Lounges.

America has relied on leaders for centuries. Right now they don’t feel there are any. If electing The Donald was grasping at straws so be it. In this election we did not provide any viable candidates. If you are upset at the results look in the mirror. We have not encouraged leadership but prolonged mediocrity by our own neglect. We and I mean all of us are the Gang That Can’t Shoot Straight. By the above I am trying in a small way to start here.

As always
Ted The Great

Factoids:

114th Congress The Senate had 54 Republicans, 44 Democrats, and 2 Independents, who both caucused with the Democrats. The average age of Members of the House at the beginning of the 114th Congress was 57.0 years; of Senators, 61.0 years. 79 have been in office at least 20 years.

Winston Churchill through the SIS, their intelligence agency worked for 18 months to ensure the election of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. It was believed that only FDR would send supplies and eventually enter WWII.
The U.S. has a long history of attempting to influence presidential elections in other countries – it’s done so as many as 81 times between 1946 and 2000. That number doesn’t include military coups and regime change efforts following the election of candidates the U.S. didn’t like, notably those in Iran, Guatemala and Chile.

The United States Intelligence Community is a federation of 16 separate United States government agencies that work separately and together to conduct intelligence for the country. In 2010 that there were 1,271 government organizations and 1,931 private companies in 10,000 locations in the United States that are working on counterterrorism, homeland security, and intelligence.The intelligence community as a whole includes 854,000 people holding top-secret clearances. I am sure there is no eavesdropping or hacking going on here.