Depending on your political ideology, the next four years will either be the Christmas gift you have been yearning for or a nightmare that won’t seem to end. This should come as no surprise to anyone. It is a ritual that our forefathers dreamed up too many years ago. It is the way we do business.

If you don’t like something, change it. Every non incumbent will want to change this or that or perhaps blow the whole thing up and start over again. I have been through many changings of the guard. We are going to give the government back to the people. We are going to overhaul this department or that. Motherhood and apple pie. One problem! Either way 70 million or so are going to love you or hate you. 

We talk of mandates, which by defintion are an order or commission to do something. I always find this a bit of deception. We seem to want to confer unbridled power on the winner. That is sort of democracy. Then they get bogged down in a stupid thing called reality. 

The Department of Justice is an interesting example. There are forty different subheadings including : US Attorneys, FBI,Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives Bureau · Antitrust Division · Drug Enforcement Administration …to name a few. There are 115,000 employees spread out who knows where but that is a bunch of people even if you fire 25%. You would probably need 8-12 years to clean up the waste if everyone cooperated. This should be easy for Matt Gaetz who has managed to piss off 90% of everyone except his father and mother.

The Department of Defense has over 1.4  million active-duty service personnel, including soldiers, marines, sailors, airmen, and guardians. The Department of Defense also maintains over 778,000 National Guard and reservists, and over 747,000 civilians, bringing the total to over 2.91  million employees. The budget is give or take $850 billion. Now you are smart people. Does it make any sense to put a former newsperson, granted he is a veteran, in charge of this behemoth? 

You might think I am a Dem. I am not. Ditto Republican. I hope by some definition, I am a businessman. I know things are bloated and self serving. His Hairness is carving out niches for his buddies. It is not only the Trumpster but Congress itself.Every spending bill affects all sorts of fiefdoms. People say they want to cut spending…just not in their district. 

I have been researching varying agencies. There is incredible overlap. In affordable housing there are over 100 departments that have their finger in the pie. Public health, agriculture, Congress and the Presidency have found a need for more people. Then you also need, secretaries, office space et al. This really is nuts. I welcome any effort to clean things up. 

Robert Gates was Secretary of Defense from 2006-2011. He tried for 7 months to figure the ins and outs of the department. He gave up in disgust. My point is that this government of ours is off the rails. Do we really think some of the nominations are going to work? 

If I were running the joint, I would just take one of the departments to work on. I would get the best pros in the business and go from top to bottom.  Make it my headliner, my working model. Make every effort public, no matter who you pissed off.  Indeed a small section of the swamp but it is better than drowning in the rest. This full metal jacket approach that is currently  being proposed has a lot of places to fail. 

We worry about Trump being a totalitarian, and some of those fears might be valid. Xi and Putin have surrounded themselves with sycophants who dare not share their contrary opinions. No news, but good news. It does not take a rocket scientist to see how that is working out. Trump wants absolute allegiance to everything he floats. I know what I am doing, so just shut up. I wince not because I am apolitical but because it just makes no sense. Unfortunately, to many it does, and I will respect that. Deep down we have to admit to frailties and bad decisions and fix them, not contiinue on a kamikaze mission. The thought of Slim Pickens riding the A Bomb comes to mind. 

Most of all we have to look at ourselves. After Harris’s loss, the politicos and pollsters were coming up every excuse they could muster. I think it came down to most people voting to avoid the other. Smiley backtracked more times than I have fingers,on the border,trans rights et al. The rank and file who did 180’s on Trump was sickening. The whole process was pretty bad. And yet we really did not protest in any tangible way. We looked the other way,held our nose and jumped…or voted.

The winners can’t gloat. The losers have to get over it. We have to be more aware and dare I say educated to understand what our vote really means. Is it solidarity or aquiesence? Is it strictly for my good or for the country as a whole. Sure we could have revolution but it could also be a Renaissance. I was hoping that Trump would be gracious and constructive and to really get things done in a sane way. Right now, I can’t bet the ranch on that. 

To finish, I was just thinking how many years I have to go. Probably 10-15. Not maudlin but practical. Do I really want to waste four of those precious 365’s watching one debacle of rancor after another? Is it productive or even rational to dissect every minute with talking heads or news conferences? Do I want to hear blathering on the floors of congress to empty seats? Do I want to guard my responses to friends lest there be a Donnybrook. That’s not the way I am going to spend the next four. How about you? No matter how old you are and how many years you have left?

As always 

Ted The Great

Factoids

The U.S. has lost almost $2.4 trillion in simple payment errors over the last two decades.

We spend  $1.7 billion a year to maintain empty office buildings.There are 80,000 of these.

It costs 3 cents to make a penny and 11 cents to make a nickel.

According to the G.A.O., the Department of Treasury has the greatest percentage of waste, fraud, and abuse at 23.87% of the department’s budget. This is followed by Labor at 11.68%, Veterans Affairs at 10.33%, Agriculture at 9.76%, and HHS at 8.87%.

Breaking News…At press time I just learned of Matt Gaetz withdrawing. Maybe there is hope after all.