One of my great vices is salty snacks. But I find that I never sleep well if I eat anything at night, so I purposely don’t eat anything after 6:30pm. Also I almost always skip breakfast. I’ve been doing that almost 20 years now, way before the term “intermittent fasting” was widely used.
There seems to be a sort-of Fermi Paradox regarding the Deep State.
I try to be an unbiased observer and I see many things that indicate there are many people in our government actively working to implement non-Constitutional policies and/or policies that are directly harmful to America and Americans.
However, like Enrico Fermi’s space aliens,
Where are the whistleblowers?
Where are the government employees who take their oath to uphold the Constitution seriously?
Where are the leakers?
There was no shortage of leakers in the Trump administration. Why no leaks now?
Sure a lot of folks are lackeys. A lot are paper pushers just trying to hang on until they can retire with a nice pension. But there have to be thousands who really care, who really take their oath seriously. There have been a few brave individuals who have spoken out. Recently two admirable IRS whistleblowers. I recall an FBI whistleblower about a year ago. A Marine(?) Sergeant spoke out about a year ago.
And it seems like an employee pool that would tilt towards honesty, bravery, chivalry. The FBI, the CIA, the ATF, the CBP, the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard. Even if most people in an organization are spineless paper pushers, one would assume there is a smaller percentage of such people in careers that require one to put one’s life on the line to literally protect the nation. If the nation is being destroyed by rogue, internal actors where are the courageous people standing against them? Even if only 10% of the people in these jobs is sincere and courageous that would be thousands of people.
Where are they?
There have been IRS whistle-blowers.
And FBI whistle-blowers.
The question is the follow up.
What happens to them if/when they stick their necks out?
Elon Musk blew the whistle on “Biden”‘s intervention in censoring the Media and Info-tech.
What’s been happening to him over the past year and more—he, who was once the poster child of all things ecological, etc.?
And what’s been happening to the journalists (e.g., Matt Taibbi) to whom Musk publicized the revelations and who, in turn, broke the story to a wider public?
We are dealing with a lawless, criminal administration.
Potential leakers know that.
“Biden” has made it very clear.
Indeed, “Biden” and “his” thugs have—shamelessly—made it crystal clear what awaits those who endanger the Biden familia and the broader “Biden” regime.
(And might it also be that a large segment of those “public servants” essentially agree, politically, with “Biden”‘s policies and goals; and that those who don’t agree have been pushed out as more left-leaning bureaucrats have been moved in to fill their places…?)
The WSJ has an article about Jon Stewart returning to the “Daily Show” to host on Mondays during this election year. The journalist John Jurgensen includes this line in his reporting:
“The Daily Show” has used a rotation of comedians as guest hosts since Stewart’s successor, Trevor Noah, ended his successful seven-year run on the show in 2022.
The article also states that Stewart’s viewership was around 2 million viewers a night.
Noah rarely did half that and by May of 2021 was barely doing 1/4 of that number. In September of 2021 Noah was drawing about 1/3 million viewers and when he left, in 2022, he was down to 200,000.
So, according to the WSJ, losing 90% of a show’s audience is a “successful run.”
Read the thread and documents posted along with it. Answers may appear.
Barry Meislin @12:08pm
“What happens to them if/when they stick their necks out?”
That’s my point. I’m not surprised we’re not seeing leaks and walkouts at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, but the FBI? CIA? The freaking Marines?!
These are people drawn to a career of physical and mental challenges that require them to swear an oath of loyalty to protect and defend the Constitution. If they are willing to die to do that why aren’t they willing to go on Sean Hannity’s show at risk of losing their pension (and then signing a lucrative book deal)?
And these are clever people, literally trained in military strategy. A few hundred can’t plot clandestinely to all come forward with key, irrefutable documentation all at once, simultaneously shared with multiple domestic and foreign media outlets so that it would be impossible to quell?
Where are they?
they do keep things very close to the chest,sam adams was the senior company analyst that got the Vietcong strength in the lead up to the tet offensive, but West
moreland’s G2 Daniel Graham shut distribution of said estimates,and the rest was history, including LBJ standing down, and the chaos in Chicago, Adams told his story in his memoir after the Westmoreland trial
But if there were hundreds or thousands of him his current situation would be much better. I understand many people are cowards, or might not be willing to risk what he has, but, again, the FBI, the CIA, the military, border patrol, TSA… These are professions that attract courageous people who believe in their country. It can’t be that 99% of those people were weeded out during Obama’s 8 years.
It takes tremendous courage to do what Marcus Allen did, but typically you’d expect to see others follow his lead after he stuck his neck out.
And a lot of these people do well, financially, once they stand up. Bari Weiss, Matt Taibi, Brett Weinstein, Jordan Peterson… I understand it is very, very difficult, but there are also indications that this path can lead to fame and some modicum of fortune.
Where are they?
Re Jon Stewart’s partial return to the Daily Show: First off, I don’t believe there are too many people under the age of 70 who watch much live TV at all anymore. And the demographic the Daily Show trageted (back in Jon Stewart’s day at least) skewed young, like 18 – 35. These days most of the people in that demo don’t even have cable anymore (if they ever even did). Now you might argue that since those same people who watched Stewart back in the day are now older, they may come back, resubscribe to a cable service or whatever. But I’m not terribly convinced of that myself.
Jon Stewart already had a show on Apple TV that failed. I just think his audience has moved on to other content like podcasts, Youtube, and social media. Now of course Comedy Central will doubtless put up Jon Stewart hosted Daily Show clips onto Youtube which may get some traction, who knows? But the people who watch them are highly unlikely to resubscribe to a cable in my opinion.
In short, the media landscape of 2024 is a far, far different than it was in 2015 when Steward went of the air. People have way more options and distractions.
there is a whole host of analyst, but they are wrong think because they don’t follow the CAIR SPLC view of Muh Democracy and White Supremacy eleventy!! look at what happened to Jack Teixeira, who was passing around the evidence of flawed policy determinations, not just about the Ukraine
so you get fakirs like the four stooges Dunn Gonnell, Fanone, and lazarus who were the Horatio at the Capital, Lazarus was caught in a bald faced lie, by recently released J6 footage, then there was the fakery around Brandon Straka, which unravelled in one of those ginned up lawsuits, where the witness was not there,
remember when they were angry because tucker hogged the footage, sure that was it was about, Ben Jones sic was the one that cobbled together the Torture Report, which Brennan had hacked the senate to get at, he got a major publisher to distribute it, he got
Adrian Driver to play him in a film, so the Outrage dejure is fake, the real crimes against the body politics are ignored,
so vindman, and jovanovich, got top billing and you can’t even say ciamarella, and miles taylor, a matt perry lookalike passed that silly ‘anonymous tome, and lets not discuss bottle blond Cassidy Hutchinson, each story more proposterous than the last,
so the powers that be, chase General Flynn ‘around perditions way’ even coming up with a femme fatale in miss lokhova, who was a whistleblower against the most corrupt Russian bank Sberbank but no matter, meanwhile a fully committed Russian asset, deep in the Special Forces,Peter Dobbins had the run of the intel community for at least a dozen years, you would here crickets from Fugliosi or Strzok or Laufman about that oversight, this is what Counter intelligence so called excels at missing the point
add to that the two Chinese spies who after a short sojourn in Mainland China, ended up in the Bureaus translation section, working for Robert Mueller, you can’t make this up, whose side are they on,
Nonapod,
I agree 100% with your take. This is why, even though I enjoy the schadenfreude of a lot of movies and TV shows underperforming these days, I’m hesitant to attribute it all to “go woke go broke.” The past 3 decades have been extremely disruptive to media due to the Internet. The music industry was the first to get hit, streaming music uses a lot less bandwidth than video and it took decades for many folks to get broadband Internet. Then newspaper subscriptions plummeted, and newspaper advertising rates. Then video/DVD rental stores/kiosks.
We’re now into the broadcast/cable television phase. Cable is a deadman walking but it’s not going softly into that dark night.
However, my point about Noah and the WSJ reporter is unrelated, and still stands. Losing 90% of viewership is not successful. The author of the article knows Noah was not popular, Comedy Central knows Noah was unpopular… It’s weird that the reporter feels uncomfortable stating that though. It’s almost like Noah is not being judged by the content of his character monologues.
Why I can’t stop eating…um…because it tastes good?
I never had any trouble stopping eating when I was eating institutional food on board ships every day.
However, like Enrico Fermi’s space aliens,
Where are the whistleblowers?
Rufus T. Firefly:
I have wondered as well.
After the Benghazi attack, when those Americans were left to die and Obama’s absence remains still unexplained that night, I thought about all those bright, accomplished, presumably somewhat patriotic Americans who had climbed the their slippery poles in the government and military and who were present when Benghazi went down, but never said a word.
There were two whistleblowers, Gregory Hicks and Mark Thompson, who got to testify, not that it made any difference.
People can’t be eating everything in sight during the daytime because they are at work and don’t want to attract attention. Also, a lot of the food in the fridge has other peoples’ names on it, and they don’t take kindly to it already being eaten when they come for it.
That, and loneliness.
_________
Jon Stewart wasn’t bad.
The worst thing about him was that his show spawned Stephen Colbert.
Sailorcut, me either. But then I ate mostly Midrats because I worked nights on the Carrier. I don’t think anybody wanted seconds
“Where are they?” – Rufus T.
Most of them have families, cars, homes, time in service toward their pensions, etc. Rock the boat and all that goes away. It’s called “Golden Handcuffs.” Where are they going to find the money to pay their bills and also their lawyers?
That’s why the left came up with “cancel culture.” Deprive a person of their livelihood, pauperize them, ruin their reputations, etc. It’s designed to keep people in line.
In the military you can rock the boat by going through the chain of command. The higher ups may listen to your complaints, but they may not do anything because it wouldn’t be “prudent.” Go outside the chain of command, and even if you’re right, you will be punished in today’s military.
Our system has depended on people following the Constitution and obeying laws. But the left has decided to break that system. That’s why so many people are unable to grasp what’s happening at the border. What Biden is doing is open defiance of the law and the Constitution. It’s an unarmed invasion of the country, but Mayorkas and Biden say the border is secure. Baghdad Bob was more truthful than either of them.
The MSM runs cover for them. They print or broadcast only the “correct” information.
The dice are loaded against anyone who comes out against the agenda of the left. And it takes someone who is financially independent and mentally willing to go through the cancelling process. Someone like Trump or Musk, or Taibbi, or RFK Jr., or Vivek, etc. Thank goodness they are in the arena doing the work that needs to be done to save the Republic.
I submit the answer to the question regarding the existence and influence of “whistleblowers” may be found by looking at the popular media. I remember during the Nixon/Watergate hearings, the proceedings were on television constantly, either by way of live broadcasts or by repetition during the “news hours,” followed by front page stories and editorials in the print media, which included highly popular weeklies like Time in addition to, of course, The (Com)Post, which constituted the tip of the spear. Recall there were only three television networks and they ALL spotlit the proceedings constantly. It was a neverending drumbeat of “get Nixon,” and there was literally no opposing viewpoint except in the conservative media, like National Review or Human Events, which, being print weekiles with small circulations, could never hope to restrain the firebreathing rheoric of all the other outlets. This turned popular opinion, which had once been overwhelmingly favorable, against Nixon, and him being an honorable Quaker, he gave up and quit rather than tear the country apart. Contrast today, when all the major media carries water for the leftist political operation and conversely, buries anything that might reflect poorly on it. I am myustified how they support Biden, a man whose entire history (B.O., i.e., Before Obama) was a target of ridicule from both left and right. OTOH, the same media will spread lies, innuendo and propaganda against Trump and his supporters with absolutely no restraint and will destroy anyone who gets in the way. Is it any wonder that whistleblowers might have second thoughts about going public with the knowledge that their efforts will either draw no susained attention or cause them to be publicly shunned and that at the end of the exercise, TPTB will do NOTHING? The wonder is not that there seem to be so few, but that anybody comes forward at all.
Shirehome:
Grabbing a slider or roller off the speed line were usually about the only palatable options on the mess decks during the day, but I was in an aviation squadron: we only worked half days. My half was 6pm to 6am so midrats was generally my main meal too.
Breakfast often was the best meal of the day…at least until the fresh stuff ran out and they switched to powered eggs and milk.
Strangely, as much as I hated shipboard life at the time, the memories are nostalgic now that’s it’s 20 years removed.
Hi Rufus,
About [Jon Stewart returning to the “comedy” tv show], “The Daily Show”…honestly,
I CAN’T STAND THE BLAGGARD!
Please pardon my shouting, for a moment there, but I just can’t stand his act.
By saying, I can’t stand him, I mean I can’t stand his TV act.
Whether the makers of the Daily Show designed the Daily Show for this purpose, or not- The Daily Show, + [in my words- Jon Stewart’s pretending to be an expert on government on the show], does a lot to support the US Democrats + does a lot to support the US’ liberals, + that makes the show very unfair.
The show says, “oh, this is ALL in good fun”, but when I see Stewart speak on the show, + aggressively arguing with Republicans…or others he doesn’t agree with, it’s all about him “shutting down” the people who have views that he doesn’t like.
I just wish that he…and the tv show, would just commit + say- we’re doing this show because we don’t like [the views of the Republicans, + of conservatives, + of others], and this show is our way of arguing with people that we don’t like.
Another thing about the show that irks me- I sometimes find political humor funny, + political cartoons funny, but mostly I try to avoid them.
I’m someone who likes to have food, or entertainment, [where the entertainers, + the restaurants who make the food],…leave their political views + other views, [out] of their entertainment and restaurants.
When I go to hear [rock music, or Al Hirt-type jazz], or when [I go to Friendly’s, or Burger King, or McDonald’s], I’m there for the ENTERTAINMENT, or for the FOOD, and I don’t want to see someone’s political views written up on the wall(s) of those places.
I like to keep my entertainment, + [my talks about politics + government], separate.
I have a lot of bratty people in my family, who like to talk about politics [even when no one wants to listen to them talk about politics].
I like to to have my [food and entertainment] served without a bowlful of politics, is pretty much what I mean to say.
That’s that.
(p.s. is it OK for me to call you, just Rufus? I just like the sound of the name, “Rufus”.) 😀
J.J. and Steve,
Yes. But look at Bret Weinstein for example. Completely cancelled by academia and the corporate media. So Joe Rogan put him on his show. Now Bret and his wife make multiples of what they made as professors and are most assuredly happier in their new jobs. The podcast Triggernometry almost every week airs a long interview with someone who stood up to an institution violating moral principles and all of them say it was hell at first, but now their lives are better.
The corporate media has so much less power than it used to. Any competent government employee willing to air legitimate evidence of major government corruption or a government agency violating its Constitutional mandate would get as much time as they need on Glenn Beck’s Blaze media or Tucker Carlson’s show.
I’m not saying it’s easy. I’m not saying most people would do it, but J.J., Steve, if you were in the military and you knew your Superior was violating the Constitution and the nation, including your family, was at risk… You’re telling me you’d just let the malevolence happen in order to make your car payment?
It doesn’t add up. With the amount of corruption that appears to exist and the amount of people involved, it just doesn’t make sense that there haven’t been major, concerted efforts from within to stop the treason.
Look at the school districts and PTAs. Common, everyday parents have been willing to speak up and have their names and faces known, risking negative media exposure and their jobs, in order to eliminate perversion from the schools; in order to enforce better academic standards.
I don’t know the answer, but it does not seem possible that so few people at the FBI, CIA and in the military take their oaths seriously. Maybe the ones who take their oaths seriously are onboard with the changes and believe “extreme MAGA” needs to be struck down?
TR,
“Just Rufus” is fine. Mind if I call you, “T?” 🙂
I’ve heard others who share your lament of Stewart and folks who incorporate a similar schtick call it the “clown nose on/clown nose off” phenomenon.
Try to push back on Stewart or confront him with serious journalism that refutes his monologues and coverage and the clown nose goes on and he says, “Oh, I’m just a comedian. You shouldn’t take me seriously. I don’t have to debate your point. I’m here to entertain.”
But the minute any legitimate confrontation is gone the clown nose comes off and it’s targeted political propaganda designed to skew opinion through mockery and derision.
It’s sort-of like the old, vaudeville bit where a comic insults a guy and when the guy goes to punch the comic the comic pulls out a pair of fake glasses and throws them on and says, “You wouldn’t hit a guy with glasses, would you?”
Hi Rufus,
Thank you for your reply.
I think it’s cool that some else shares some of my points of view. 🙂
…Watching Jon Stewart on TV…my gosh.
I’d rather spend a day, in a house full of: whiny, wet cats.
🙂
Re: Clown nose off / on
____________________________
Motte-and-bailey fallacy
The motte-and-bailey fallacy (named after the motte-and-bailey castle) is a form of argument and an informal fallacy where an arguer conflates two positions that share similarities, one modest and easy to defend (the “motte”) and one much more controversial and harder to defend (the “bailey”). The arguer advances the controversial position, but when challenged, insists that only the more modest position is being advanced.
Rufus: ever applied for a government job in the national security field or the IC? The process is designed to select for obedience to the institution. It has been for decades.
If you want to know what happens to government whistleblowers, look up William Binney, Thomas Andrews Drake, and John Crane.
It’s not J.J.’s military anymore. I’m just a citizen and I don’t like the idea of a draft, but I think we were better off as a country when military culture was diluted by regular inflows of pissed-off civilians with lives they wanted to get back to on the outside. As for the IC, Truman was right.
Rufus T., you have to consider that the feral (typo intended) agencies – DOJ CIA, FBI, ATF, DHS, DOD, and more were fundamentally transformed by Obama beginning fifteen years ago.
That means they have hired many leftists and gotten rid of conservatives, especially in the higher positions. We can’t assume anymore that such agencies are full of conservative thinking people ready to expose corruption.
We would like to think that all these people are patriots that would come forward. I aver that a majority, especially at the top, are fully on board with the left’s game. If not, how do we explain Crossfire Hurricane? Comey, Strzok, etal.? Have you seen Chris Wray testify in Congress? His contempt for the Republicans virtually oozes out of him. Same thing with AG Garland.
IMO, this government and the military are quite different than when I served. There are always people who are out for themselves. There were back in my day. But that was on the order of petty theft or misdemeanors. Not anything that threatened the whole fabric of the nation. If you are on board with Biden and the Democrat policies, which it appears that a majority of federal government employees are, why would they do anything to disrupt the agenda?
The normals are mostly non-government people who have done the normal thing – get educated, get a job, raise a family, save some money, and retire. They are busy doing responsible things and mostly want to be left alone by the government.
On the other hand, the left is like the busybodies who take over HOAs. They are certain they know how people should live their lives, and it becomes their mission in life to make people do exactly that. I never realized how many of them there were. Until Obama became POTUS.
Rufus:
Concerning your “where are the leakers” question.
This is why I am so cynical about Presidential Elections really meaning that much.
The entire structure is rotten. If you leaked on Trump I don’t think there are downsides. You most likely will not get fired. If you are fired a soft landing will be arranged. You may become lionized and invited to the right parties. Since the whole of D.C. and Maryland and Northern Virginia are rabidly liberal, if you leak as a liberal against Biden your done. You’ll never work in your field again and most likely will be blacklisted. Americans don’t pay attention. Why we are where we are.
“You’re telling me you’d just let the malevolence happen in order to make your car payment?”
Rufus
That is exactly what most people do to keep their jobs so they can continue to pay bills, send kids to college, pay for medical treatments. They live with it because they have to.
I’m going to assume there was intense competition to be a subject in that study.
@Rufus T Firefly “Where are they“?
I think the Borg has refined its defenses against whistleblowers, starting with the hiring / vetting process, the painful prospect of losing wages & benefits if one is suspended (and these have become even better than those offered in the private sector now), and the negative prospect of having not only the Borg, but the clarions of society coming after you – the Legacy Media instruments, but also those operatives in the partisan social media world, where the fighting is a whole lot dirtier these days – think of hacked personal accounts, SWAT’ing, and so on. And meanwhile, your ‘suspension’ from duties during the ‘investigation’ into the ‘allegations’ can be devastating. The ‘Process as Punishment’ has been turned into an art form.
There used to be a certain proud notoriety associated with Whistle-blowing. But in today’s toxic activist environment, in today’s western society, I think the balance sheet is far into negative territory.
Newsbusters asks why MSNBC wants a squishy Nikki Haley to defeat Trump?
“Why would Morning Joe be boosting the Republican who, in their opinion, has the best chance of beating their boy, Biden?”
What Rufus et al miss about Whistleblowers is that government work is no more lucrative and secure than private employment. And with the GEOT, that’s been blurred BIGLY — eg, Boeing as Feds biggest contractor
GWOT, not “GEOT”.
Not to mention that the GWOT has been over 20 years, and the Fed debt run up was accelerated by the Great Recession, Obamunist, and the Pandemic.
HOW lucrative is Fed work? In 2008, the Cato Institute measured plus benefits of Fed work to be about double the private sector.
Given what’s happened since, I cannot fathom how that gap could ever have narrowed in the years since then.
Truly, I don’t see how the Deep State can be tamed without reversing this problem and inverting the incentives structure — or else The People must make the State afraid, OPENLY — not thru stage-managed elections like the US got used to during the Cold War decades.
Who has won well the green badgers contractors have won the intel agencies yes they got some scalps like awlaki binladen bagdadi but at what cost a ruinous cost not only in monies but shattered lives
The taliban are back islamic state is in remission so far al queda is on a low burn
Of course hamas bubbled up again
So Obama’s 8 years put a lot of important, key people in the CIA, FBI, Immigration, the Pentagon… And those key people managed hiring and promotions so that there were a lot more anti-Constitutionalists in place who are in favor of diminishing America and open borders.
That’s the scenario, right?
So then DJT very unexpectedly wins in 2016 AND has the House and Senate. Why didn’t those who were not yet corrupted and still in those agencies reach out to favorable people in the Trump administration at that time? Why didn’t they reach out to FoxNews and tell them about all the evil done during Obama’s Presidency? Why didn’t they try to turn the agencies back, like had been done in the previous 8 years?
I don’t know the answer, but I’m looking at it objectively and it doesn’t add up. Even if it’s 10% (and it has to be a much higher percentage) of people in these agencies there would have been an uprising when Trump won in 2016. Look at BLM and the pro-Palestine idiots. A very small percentage of the population having a big impact on conversation and policy.
Look at what Page and Strzok did when Trump was in office. 2 people. Nobody on the other side plots or leaks or sways press reporting?
Why didn’t those who were not yet corrupted and still in those agencies reach out to favorable people in the Trump administration at that time? Why didn’t they reach out to FoxNews and tell them about all the evil done during Obama’s Presidency? Why didn’t they try to turn the agencies back, like had been done in the previous 8 years?
Rufus:
My guess is that they were typical human beings hoping to raise families and retire comfortably.
Being a patriot can put a crimp into both.
FBI agents Page and Strzok calculated their efforts to cripple Trump would be welcomed by their superiors. And they were mostly right.
Glenn Reynolds notes that Biden’s Open Treason over the border invasion can get more consequential than anything else going on right now.
SCUTUS scuttled dealing with is (with Roberts and Amy Conan joining the usual Leftists)
Is there a Constitutional right to self-defend the border from invasion?
An X-pression states that DC Congressional people are urging Biden to seize control of the Texas National Guard. But…
“What will Biden do if Abbott says no, arguing that the federal government, having defaulted on its basic constitutional obligations, has forfeited its rights here? He’d better know. Note that Abbott is already getting support from other governors.” Indeed they are — DiSantis for one. https://instapundit.com/628599/#disqus_thread
Rufus — The UniParty GOP trade’s follow the media like Justice Roberts does.
The Pol consultant class is left and far-left, with very few on the Right. And these RNO-ites (“Country Club” Rs we called them in Colorado) follow the mainstream Swamp of the now Woke and fascist opinion and “news” outlets and therefore have no spine.
It’s the same reality today that called forth the Tea Party movement in 2009, when Mitch McConnell and the US Chamber of Commerce money wanted these upstart gulled and gone. Same people, same stuff, same reasons.
The Dems are evil, but the GOP is very compromised. Half of Rs in Congress reject the freedom caucus.
RE: Wikipedia, and it’s manipulation, especially with regard to the issue of UFOs.
Just who controls Wikipedia, and what are you allowed to know?
For the last two nights the apparently little known or viewed “Good Trouble Show,” on Youtube, had programs devoted to a dynamite and very detailed expose titled, “UFO Coverup: The Wikipedia “Secret Cabal””
And, if true, I found the conduct/disinformation campaign outlined to be diabolical!
As if you didn’t already distrust Wikipedia, the 7th most visited website on the Internet.
Talk about playing the system, a real conspiracy, deliberate manipulation, disinformation, misinformation, and propaganda!
Did you really imagine that you were getting something close to the truth, getting objective, unbiased information, the full story, getting both sides of a subject or issue from Wikipedia?
Well, according to researcher Rob Heatherly, think again, because on the subject of UFOs–and also on apparently many other controversial subjects as well–you weren’t and aren’t at all, and it certainly appears that he has dug up a whole lot of evidence to prove it. *
I think your explanation fits Occam’s Razor. It truly is analogous to Fermi’s Paradox. No whistleblowers are blowing whistles because opposition doesn’t exist.
It’s one of three things:
1. Uniparty. There is limited to no opposition.
2. A “deep” State apparatus actively trying to subvert the Constitution is a rightwing myth.
3. The opposition is too cowardly to act.
The Brave browser offers a “Copy clean link” option when a url is right-clicked, which also does the job.
I like seeing a clean, non-tiny url so I have some idea where I’ll go if I click.
The gibberish after the ‘?’ is mostly for user preferences and tracking information.
Huxley: I like seeing a clean, non-tiny url so I have some idea where I’ll go if I click.
Me, too. With enough of the title or a few words about the content in the URL so I have some idea if I really want to bother following that particular link.
And thanks for the URL shortening tip.
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One of my great vices is salty snacks. But I find that I never sleep well if I eat anything at night, so I purposely don’t eat anything after 6:30pm. Also I almost always skip breakfast. I’ve been doing that almost 20 years now, way before the term “intermittent fasting” was widely used.
In news today, China’s stock market seems to be in collapsing.
I have a question.
There seems to be a sort-of Fermi Paradox regarding the Deep State.
I try to be an unbiased observer and I see many things that indicate there are many people in our government actively working to implement non-Constitutional policies and/or policies that are directly harmful to America and Americans.
However, like Enrico Fermi’s space aliens,
Where are the whistleblowers?
Where are the government employees who take their oath to uphold the Constitution seriously?
Where are the leakers?
There was no shortage of leakers in the Trump administration. Why no leaks now?
Sure a lot of folks are lackeys. A lot are paper pushers just trying to hang on until they can retire with a nice pension. But there have to be thousands who really care, who really take their oath seriously. There have been a few brave individuals who have spoken out. Recently two admirable IRS whistleblowers. I recall an FBI whistleblower about a year ago. A Marine(?) Sergeant spoke out about a year ago.
And it seems like an employee pool that would tilt towards honesty, bravery, chivalry. The FBI, the CIA, the ATF, the CBP, the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard. Even if most people in an organization are spineless paper pushers, one would assume there is a smaller percentage of such people in careers that require one to put one’s life on the line to literally protect the nation. If the nation is being destroyed by rogue, internal actors where are the courageous people standing against them? Even if only 10% of the people in these jobs is sincere and courageous that would be thousands of people.
Where are they?
There have been IRS whistle-blowers.
And FBI whistle-blowers.
The question is the follow up.
What happens to them if/when they stick their necks out?
Elon Musk blew the whistle on “Biden”‘s intervention in censoring the Media and Info-tech.
What’s been happening to him over the past year and more—he, who was once the poster child of all things ecological, etc.?
And what’s been happening to the journalists (e.g., Matt Taibbi) to whom Musk publicized the revelations and who, in turn, broke the story to a wider public?
We are dealing with a lawless, criminal administration.
Potential leakers know that.
“Biden” has made it very clear.
Indeed, “Biden” and “his” thugs have—shamelessly—made it crystal clear what awaits those who endanger the Biden familia and the broader “Biden” regime.
(And might it also be that a large segment of those “public servants” essentially agree, politically, with “Biden”‘s policies and goals; and that those who don’t agree have been pushed out as more left-leaning bureaucrats have been moved in to fill their places…?)
The WSJ has an article about Jon Stewart returning to the “Daily Show” to host on Mondays during this election year. The journalist John Jurgensen includes this line in his reporting:
The article also states that Stewart’s viewership was around 2 million viewers a night.
Noah rarely did half that and by May of 2021 was barely doing 1/4 of that number. In September of 2021 Noah was drawing about 1/3 million viewers and when he left, in 2022, he was down to 200,000.
So, according to the WSJ, losing 90% of a show’s audience is a “successful run.”
Here’s part of the whistleblower’s story of one Marcus Allen (FBI) I encountered only a few moments ago, from Jason Foster, an advocate: https://twitter.com/JsnFostr/status/1749912051634327972?t=T6Ou7Yrya3c7poSfPmKcuw&s=19
Read the thread and documents posted along with it. Answers may appear.
Barry Meislin @12:08pm
“What happens to them if/when they stick their necks out?”
That’s my point. I’m not surprised we’re not seeing leaks and walkouts at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, but the FBI? CIA? The freaking Marines?!
These are people drawn to a career of physical and mental challenges that require them to swear an oath of loyalty to protect and defend the Constitution. If they are willing to die to do that why aren’t they willing to go on Sean Hannity’s show at risk of losing their pension (and then signing a lucrative book deal)?
And these are clever people, literally trained in military strategy. A few hundred can’t plot clandestinely to all come forward with key, irrefutable documentation all at once, simultaneously shared with multiple domestic and foreign media outlets so that it would be impossible to quell?
Where are they?
they do keep things very close to the chest,sam adams was the senior company analyst that got the Vietcong strength in the lead up to the tet offensive, but West
moreland’s G2 Daniel Graham shut distribution of said estimates,and the rest was history, including LBJ standing down, and the chaos in Chicago, Adams told his story in his memoir after the Westmoreland trial
in other news
https://thefederalist.com/2024/01/23/read-the-court-transcripts-from-the-major-election-integrity-trial-in-georgia/
sdferr,
I know about Marcus Allen. And God bless him!
But if there were hundreds or thousands of him his current situation would be much better. I understand many people are cowards, or might not be willing to risk what he has, but, again, the FBI, the CIA, the military, border patrol, TSA… These are professions that attract courageous people who believe in their country. It can’t be that 99% of those people were weeded out during Obama’s 8 years.
It takes tremendous courage to do what Marcus Allen did, but typically you’d expect to see others follow his lead after he stuck his neck out.
And a lot of these people do well, financially, once they stand up. Bari Weiss, Matt Taibi, Brett Weinstein, Jordan Peterson… I understand it is very, very difficult, but there are also indications that this path can lead to fame and some modicum of fortune.
Where are they?
Re Jon Stewart’s partial return to the Daily Show: First off, I don’t believe there are too many people under the age of 70 who watch much live TV at all anymore. And the demographic the Daily Show trageted (back in Jon Stewart’s day at least) skewed young, like 18 – 35. These days most of the people in that demo don’t even have cable anymore (if they ever even did). Now you might argue that since those same people who watched Stewart back in the day are now older, they may come back, resubscribe to a cable service or whatever. But I’m not terribly convinced of that myself.
Jon Stewart already had a show on Apple TV that failed. I just think his audience has moved on to other content like podcasts, Youtube, and social media. Now of course Comedy Central will doubtless put up Jon Stewart hosted Daily Show clips onto Youtube which may get some traction, who knows? But the people who watch them are highly unlikely to resubscribe to a cable in my opinion.
In short, the media landscape of 2024 is a far, far different than it was in 2015 when Steward went of the air. People have way more options and distractions.
there is a whole host of analyst, but they are wrong think because they don’t follow the CAIR SPLC view of Muh Democracy and White Supremacy eleventy!! look at what happened to Jack Teixeira, who was passing around the evidence of flawed policy determinations, not just about the Ukraine
so you get fakirs like the four stooges Dunn Gonnell, Fanone, and lazarus who were the Horatio at the Capital, Lazarus was caught in a bald faced lie, by recently released J6 footage, then there was the fakery around Brandon Straka, which unravelled in one of those ginned up lawsuits, where the witness was not there,
remember when they were angry because tucker hogged the footage, sure that was it was about, Ben Jones sic was the one that cobbled together the Torture Report, which Brennan had hacked the senate to get at, he got a major publisher to distribute it, he got
Adrian Driver to play him in a film, so the Outrage dejure is fake, the real crimes against the body politics are ignored,
so vindman, and jovanovich, got top billing and you can’t even say ciamarella, and miles taylor, a matt perry lookalike passed that silly ‘anonymous tome, and lets not discuss bottle blond Cassidy Hutchinson, each story more proposterous than the last,
https://twitter.com/EndWokeness/status/1750192917732303166?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1750192917732303166%7Ctwgr%5E5d2a56c10de2f0b3295dc8812f1eeb7157b41714%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fblazingcatfur.ca%2F2024%2F01%2F24%2Fwtf-1893%2F
==
At this point, my response to these creatures is a variation on ‘f*** off, wankers’.
so the powers that be, chase General Flynn ‘around perditions way’ even coming up with a femme fatale in miss lokhova, who was a whistleblower against the most corrupt Russian bank Sberbank but no matter, meanwhile a fully committed Russian asset, deep in the Special Forces,Peter Dobbins had the run of the intel community for at least a dozen years, you would here crickets from Fugliosi or Strzok or Laufman about that oversight, this is what Counter intelligence so called excels at missing the point
add to that the two Chinese spies who after a short sojourn in Mainland China, ended up in the Bureaus translation section, working for Robert Mueller, you can’t make this up, whose side are they on,
Nonapod,
I agree 100% with your take. This is why, even though I enjoy the schadenfreude of a lot of movies and TV shows underperforming these days, I’m hesitant to attribute it all to “go woke go broke.” The past 3 decades have been extremely disruptive to media due to the Internet. The music industry was the first to get hit, streaming music uses a lot less bandwidth than video and it took decades for many folks to get broadband Internet. Then newspaper subscriptions plummeted, and newspaper advertising rates. Then video/DVD rental stores/kiosks.
We’re now into the broadcast/cable television phase. Cable is a deadman walking but it’s not going softly into that dark night.
However, my point about Noah and the WSJ reporter is unrelated, and still stands. Losing 90% of viewership is not successful. The author of the article knows Noah was not popular, Comedy Central knows Noah was unpopular… It’s weird that the reporter feels uncomfortable stating that though. It’s almost like Noah is not being judged by the content of his
charactermonologues.Why I can’t stop eating…um…because it tastes good?
I never had any trouble stopping eating when I was eating institutional food on board ships every day.
When my wife cooks on the other hand…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9c8iUQ2uAe0
==
Scene from Neo’s old counseling practice begins at 1:37
However, like Enrico Fermi’s space aliens,
Where are the whistleblowers?
Rufus T. Firefly:
I have wondered as well.
After the Benghazi attack, when those Americans were left to die and Obama’s absence remains still unexplained that night, I thought about all those bright, accomplished, presumably somewhat patriotic Americans who had climbed the their slippery poles in the government and military and who were present when Benghazi went down, but never said a word.
There were two whistleblowers, Gregory Hicks and Mark Thompson, who got to testify, not that it made any difference.
–“Benghazi Whistle-Blowers: We Sat And Watched Them Die”
https://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/benghazi-whistleblowers-cite-hillary-clinton-dereliction-of-duty/
People can’t be eating everything in sight during the daytime because they are at work and don’t want to attract attention. Also, a lot of the food in the fridge has other peoples’ names on it, and they don’t take kindly to it already being eaten when they come for it.
That, and loneliness.
_________
Jon Stewart wasn’t bad.
The worst thing about him was that his show spawned Stephen Colbert.
Sailorcut, me either. But then I ate mostly Midrats because I worked nights on the Carrier. I don’t think anybody wanted seconds
“Where are they?” – Rufus T.
Most of them have families, cars, homes, time in service toward their pensions, etc. Rock the boat and all that goes away. It’s called “Golden Handcuffs.” Where are they going to find the money to pay their bills and also their lawyers?
That’s why the left came up with “cancel culture.” Deprive a person of their livelihood, pauperize them, ruin their reputations, etc. It’s designed to keep people in line.
In the military you can rock the boat by going through the chain of command. The higher ups may listen to your complaints, but they may not do anything because it wouldn’t be “prudent.” Go outside the chain of command, and even if you’re right, you will be punished in today’s military.
Our system has depended on people following the Constitution and obeying laws. But the left has decided to break that system. That’s why so many people are unable to grasp what’s happening at the border. What Biden is doing is open defiance of the law and the Constitution. It’s an unarmed invasion of the country, but Mayorkas and Biden say the border is secure. Baghdad Bob was more truthful than either of them.
The MSM runs cover for them. They print or broadcast only the “correct” information.
The dice are loaded against anyone who comes out against the agenda of the left. And it takes someone who is financially independent and mentally willing to go through the cancelling process. Someone like Trump or Musk, or Taibbi, or RFK Jr., or Vivek, etc. Thank goodness they are in the arena doing the work that needs to be done to save the Republic.
I submit the answer to the question regarding the existence and influence of “whistleblowers” may be found by looking at the popular media. I remember during the Nixon/Watergate hearings, the proceedings were on television constantly, either by way of live broadcasts or by repetition during the “news hours,” followed by front page stories and editorials in the print media, which included highly popular weeklies like Time in addition to, of course, The (Com)Post, which constituted the tip of the spear. Recall there were only three television networks and they ALL spotlit the proceedings constantly. It was a neverending drumbeat of “get Nixon,” and there was literally no opposing viewpoint except in the conservative media, like National Review or Human Events, which, being print weekiles with small circulations, could never hope to restrain the firebreathing rheoric of all the other outlets. This turned popular opinion, which had once been overwhelmingly favorable, against Nixon, and him being an honorable Quaker, he gave up and quit rather than tear the country apart. Contrast today, when all the major media carries water for the leftist political operation and conversely, buries anything that might reflect poorly on it. I am myustified how they support Biden, a man whose entire history (B.O., i.e., Before Obama) was a target of ridicule from both left and right. OTOH, the same media will spread lies, innuendo and propaganda against Trump and his supporters with absolutely no restraint and will destroy anyone who gets in the way. Is it any wonder that whistleblowers might have second thoughts about going public with the knowledge that their efforts will either draw no susained attention or cause them to be publicly shunned and that at the end of the exercise, TPTB will do NOTHING? The wonder is not that there seem to be so few, but that anybody comes forward at all.
Shirehome:
Grabbing a slider or roller off the speed line were usually about the only palatable options on the mess decks during the day, but I was in an aviation squadron: we only worked half days. My half was 6pm to 6am so midrats was generally my main meal too.
Breakfast often was the best meal of the day…at least until the fresh stuff ran out and they switched to powered eggs and milk.
Strangely, as much as I hated shipboard life at the time, the memories are nostalgic now that’s it’s 20 years removed.
Hi Rufus,
About [Jon Stewart returning to the “comedy” tv show], “The Daily Show”…honestly,
I CAN’T STAND THE BLAGGARD!
Please pardon my shouting, for a moment there, but I just can’t stand his act.
By saying, I can’t stand him, I mean I can’t stand his TV act.
Whether the makers of the Daily Show designed the Daily Show for this purpose, or not- The Daily Show, + [in my words- Jon Stewart’s pretending to be an expert on government on the show], does a lot to support the US Democrats + does a lot to support the US’ liberals, + that makes the show very unfair.
The show says, “oh, this is ALL in good fun”, but when I see Stewart speak on the show, + aggressively arguing with Republicans…or others he doesn’t agree with, it’s all about him “shutting down” the people who have views that he doesn’t like.
I just wish that he…and the tv show, would just commit + say- we’re doing this show because we don’t like [the views of the Republicans, + of conservatives, + of others], and this show is our way of arguing with people that we don’t like.
Another thing about the show that irks me- I sometimes find political humor funny, + political cartoons funny, but mostly I try to avoid them.
I’m someone who likes to have food, or entertainment, [where the entertainers, + the restaurants who make the food],…leave their political views + other views, [out] of their entertainment and restaurants.
When I go to hear [rock music, or Al Hirt-type jazz], or when [I go to Friendly’s, or Burger King, or McDonald’s], I’m there for the ENTERTAINMENT, or for the FOOD, and I don’t want to see someone’s political views written up on the wall(s) of those places.
I like to keep my entertainment, + [my talks about politics + government], separate.
I have a lot of bratty people in my family, who like to talk about politics [even when no one wants to listen to them talk about politics].
I like to to have my [food and entertainment] served without a bowlful of politics, is pretty much what I mean to say.
That’s that.
(p.s. is it OK for me to call you, just Rufus? I just like the sound of the name, “Rufus”.) 😀
J.J. and Steve,
Yes. But look at Bret Weinstein for example. Completely cancelled by academia and the corporate media. So Joe Rogan put him on his show. Now Bret and his wife make multiples of what they made as professors and are most assuredly happier in their new jobs. The podcast Triggernometry almost every week airs a long interview with someone who stood up to an institution violating moral principles and all of them say it was hell at first, but now their lives are better.
The corporate media has so much less power than it used to. Any competent government employee willing to air legitimate evidence of major government corruption or a government agency violating its Constitutional mandate would get as much time as they need on Glenn Beck’s Blaze media or Tucker Carlson’s show.
I’m not saying it’s easy. I’m not saying most people would do it, but J.J., Steve, if you were in the military and you knew your Superior was violating the Constitution and the nation, including your family, was at risk… You’re telling me you’d just let the malevolence happen in order to make your car payment?
It doesn’t add up. With the amount of corruption that appears to exist and the amount of people involved, it just doesn’t make sense that there haven’t been major, concerted efforts from within to stop the treason.
Look at the school districts and PTAs. Common, everyday parents have been willing to speak up and have their names and faces known, risking negative media exposure and their jobs, in order to eliminate perversion from the schools; in order to enforce better academic standards.
I don’t know the answer, but it does not seem possible that so few people at the FBI, CIA and in the military take their oaths seriously. Maybe the ones who take their oaths seriously are onboard with the changes and believe “extreme MAGA” needs to be struck down?
TR,
“Just Rufus” is fine. Mind if I call you, “T?” 🙂
I’ve heard others who share your lament of Stewart and folks who incorporate a similar schtick call it the “clown nose on/clown nose off” phenomenon.
Try to push back on Stewart or confront him with serious journalism that refutes his monologues and coverage and the clown nose goes on and he says, “Oh, I’m just a comedian. You shouldn’t take me seriously. I don’t have to debate your point. I’m here to entertain.”
But the minute any legitimate confrontation is gone the clown nose comes off and it’s targeted political propaganda designed to skew opinion through mockery and derision.
It’s sort-of like the old, vaudeville bit where a comic insults a guy and when the guy goes to punch the comic the comic pulls out a pair of fake glasses and throws them on and says, “You wouldn’t hit a guy with glasses, would you?”
Hi Rufus,
Thank you for your reply.
I think it’s cool that some else shares some of my points of view. 🙂
…Watching Jon Stewart on TV…my gosh.
I’d rather spend a day, in a house full of: whiny, wet cats.
🙂
Re: Clown nose off / on
____________________________
Motte-and-bailey fallacy
The motte-and-bailey fallacy (named after the motte-and-bailey castle) is a form of argument and an informal fallacy where an arguer conflates two positions that share similarities, one modest and easy to defend (the “motte”) and one much more controversial and harder to defend (the “bailey”). The arguer advances the controversial position, but when challenged, insists that only the more modest position is being advanced.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motte-and-bailey_fallacy
History Lesson: a massacre in Hebron in 1929
https://chicagoboyz.net/archives/70547.html
Rufus: ever applied for a government job in the national security field or the IC? The process is designed to select for obedience to the institution. It has been for decades.
If you want to know what happens to government whistleblowers, look up William Binney, Thomas Andrews Drake, and John Crane.
It’s not J.J.’s military anymore. I’m just a citizen and I don’t like the idea of a draft, but I think we were better off as a country when military culture was diluted by regular inflows of pissed-off civilians with lives they wanted to get back to on the outside. As for the IC, Truman was right.
Rufus T., you have to consider that the feral (typo intended) agencies – DOJ CIA, FBI, ATF, DHS, DOD, and more were fundamentally transformed by Obama beginning fifteen years ago.
That means they have hired many leftists and gotten rid of conservatives, especially in the higher positions. We can’t assume anymore that such agencies are full of conservative thinking people ready to expose corruption.
We would like to think that all these people are patriots that would come forward. I aver that a majority, especially at the top, are fully on board with the left’s game. If not, how do we explain Crossfire Hurricane? Comey, Strzok, etal.? Have you seen Chris Wray testify in Congress? His contempt for the Republicans virtually oozes out of him. Same thing with AG Garland.
IMO, this government and the military are quite different than when I served. There are always people who are out for themselves. There were back in my day. But that was on the order of petty theft or misdemeanors. Not anything that threatened the whole fabric of the nation. If you are on board with Biden and the Democrat policies, which it appears that a majority of federal government employees are, why would they do anything to disrupt the agenda?
The normals are mostly non-government people who have done the normal thing – get educated, get a job, raise a family, save some money, and retire. They are busy doing responsible things and mostly want to be left alone by the government.
On the other hand, the left is like the busybodies who take over HOAs. They are certain they know how people should live their lives, and it becomes their mission in life to make people do exactly that. I never realized how many of them there were. Until Obama became POTUS.
Rufus:
Concerning your “where are the leakers” question.
This is why I am so cynical about Presidential Elections really meaning that much.
The entire structure is rotten. If you leaked on Trump I don’t think there are downsides. You most likely will not get fired. If you are fired a soft landing will be arranged. You may become lionized and invited to the right parties. Since the whole of D.C. and Maryland and Northern Virginia are rabidly liberal, if you leak as a liberal against Biden your done. You’ll never work in your field again and most likely will be blacklisted. Americans don’t pay attention. Why we are where we are.
“You’re telling me you’d just let the malevolence happen in order to make your car payment?”
Rufus
That is exactly what most people do to keep their jobs so they can continue to pay bills, send kids to college, pay for medical treatments. They live with it because they have to.
On a lighter and tastier note
https://www.mdpi.com/2218-1989/14/1/73
Miguel cervantes:
I’m going to assume there was intense competition to be a subject in that study.
@Rufus T Firefly “Where are they“?
I think the Borg has refined its defenses against whistleblowers, starting with the hiring / vetting process, the painful prospect of losing wages & benefits if one is suspended (and these have become even better than those offered in the private sector now), and the negative prospect of having not only the Borg, but the clarions of society coming after you – the Legacy Media instruments, but also those operatives in the partisan social media world, where the fighting is a whole lot dirtier these days – think of hacked personal accounts, SWAT’ing, and so on. And meanwhile, your ‘suspension’ from duties during the ‘investigation’ into the ‘allegations’ can be devastating. The ‘Process as Punishment’ has been turned into an art form.
There used to be a certain proud notoriety associated with Whistle-blowing. But in today’s toxic activist environment, in today’s western society, I think the balance sheet is far into negative territory.
Newsbusters asks why MSNBC wants a squishy Nikki Haley to defeat Trump?
“Why would Morning Joe be boosting the Republican who, in their opinion, has the best chance of beating their boy, Biden?”
The answer is…UniParty Money is a stake, provided by taxpayers to THEM, thru “our” corrupt government!
https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/mark-finkelstein/2024/01/24/morning-joe-wants-biden-win-why-are-they-boosting-nikki-haley
What Rufus et al miss about Whistleblowers is that government work is no more lucrative and secure than private employment. And with the GEOT, that’s been blurred BIGLY — eg, Boeing as Feds biggest contractor
GWOT, not “GEOT”.
Not to mention that the GWOT has been over 20 years, and the Fed debt run up was accelerated by the Great Recession, Obamunist, and the Pandemic.
HOW lucrative is Fed work? In 2008, the Cato Institute measured plus benefits of Fed work to be about double the private sector.
Given what’s happened since, I cannot fathom how that gap could ever have narrowed in the years since then.
Truly, I don’t see how the Deep State can be tamed without reversing this problem and inverting the incentives structure — or else The People must make the State afraid, OPENLY — not thru stage-managed elections like the US got used to during the Cold War decades.
Who has won well the green badgers contractors have won the intel agencies yes they got some scalps like awlaki binladen bagdadi but at what cost a ruinous cost not only in monies but shattered lives
The taliban are back islamic state is in remission so far al queda is on a low burn
Of course hamas bubbled up again
So Obama’s 8 years put a lot of important, key people in the CIA, FBI, Immigration, the Pentagon… And those key people managed hiring and promotions so that there were a lot more anti-Constitutionalists in place who are in favor of diminishing America and open borders.
That’s the scenario, right?
So then DJT very unexpectedly wins in 2016 AND has the House and Senate. Why didn’t those who were not yet corrupted and still in those agencies reach out to favorable people in the Trump administration at that time? Why didn’t they reach out to FoxNews and tell them about all the evil done during Obama’s Presidency? Why didn’t they try to turn the agencies back, like had been done in the previous 8 years?
I don’t know the answer, but I’m looking at it objectively and it doesn’t add up. Even if it’s 10% (and it has to be a much higher percentage) of people in these agencies there would have been an uprising when Trump won in 2016. Look at BLM and the pro-Palestine idiots. A very small percentage of the population having a big impact on conversation and policy.
Look at what Page and Strzok did when Trump was in office. 2 people. Nobody on the other side plots or leaks or sways press reporting?
Why didn’t those who were not yet corrupted and still in those agencies reach out to favorable people in the Trump administration at that time? Why didn’t they reach out to FoxNews and tell them about all the evil done during Obama’s Presidency? Why didn’t they try to turn the agencies back, like had been done in the previous 8 years?
Rufus:
My guess is that they were typical human beings hoping to raise families and retire comfortably.
Being a patriot can put a crimp into both.
FBI agents Page and Strzok calculated their efforts to cripple Trump would be welcomed by their superiors. And they were mostly right.
Glenn Reynolds notes that Biden’s Open Treason over the border invasion can get more consequential than anything else going on right now.
SCUTUS scuttled dealing with is (with Roberts and Amy Conan joining the usual Leftists)
Is there a Constitutional right to self-defend the border from invasion?
An X-pression states that DC Congressional people are urging Biden to seize control of the Texas National Guard. But…
“What will Biden do if Abbott says no, arguing that the federal government, having defaulted on its basic constitutional obligations, has forfeited its rights here? He’d better know. Note that Abbott is already getting support from other governors.” Indeed they are — DiSantis for one.
https://instapundit.com/628599/#disqus_thread
Rufus — The UniParty GOP trade’s follow the media like Justice Roberts does.
The Pol consultant class is left and far-left, with very few on the Right. And these RNO-ites (“Country Club” Rs we called them in Colorado) follow the mainstream Swamp of the now Woke and fascist opinion and “news” outlets and therefore have no spine.
It’s the same reality today that called forth the Tea Party movement in 2009, when Mitch McConnell and the US Chamber of Commerce money wanted these upstart gulled and gone. Same people, same stuff, same reasons.
The Dems are evil, but the GOP is very compromised. Half of Rs in Congress reject the freedom caucus.
Same as always.
On my other post, the Texas State Guard cannot be nationalised by Biden, according to this message from a Texas Congressman.
https://media.patriots.win/post/dlh30FIBau3S.jpeg
THIS CONFLICT could GET GOOD AND NASTY!
Of course, there no finality in SCOTUS making TX go thru the District Court Appeals precession. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9d6f3e0d3745f378f03cb9a0ee5b222631bce876cf513eeb04c71a257a251352.jpg
But Matt Walsh says that Abbott has Biden over the barrel here.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/98914001f9ead546b16ce3c1a19831943aa2b5045a9635e18999168b65ae24b9.jpg
And speaking of bad optics during an election year, this would be a winner for our dissident side — either way it goes.
Trump needs to get LOUDER on this, when he comes to Phoenix with Kari Lake, Friday I gather.
TJ:
Well, yes. What if Abbott say FU and puts the razor wire back up.
Is it a Fort Sumter situation?
huxley, Yeah. A modern day nullification Crisis!
Here’s SD Governor Kristi Noem supporting Abbott’s Big Hat strategy.
https://twitter.com/KristiNoem/status/1750267433498161516?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1750267433498161516%7Ctwgr%5E23d5cee47357671d4772dcf69c1d8ffeb074e024%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fdisqus.com%2Fembed%2Fcomments%2F%3Fbase%3Ddefaultf%3Dpj-instapunditt_i%3D1-628599t_u%3Dhttps3A2F2Finstapundit.com2F6285992Ft_e%3DNOT20BACKING20DOWN3A2020Governor20Abbott20Issues20Statement20On20TexasE2809920Constitutional20Right20To20Self-Defenset_d%3DInstapundit20C2BB20Blog20Archive20C2BB20NOT20BACKING20DOWN3A20Governor20Abbott20Issues20Statement20On20TexasE2809920Constitutional20Right20To20Self-
CONFRONT THE Lawless Feds!
I hate that ridiculously long URL.
Here’s Kristi’s text:
GregAbbott_TX
is exactly right to invoke Texas’ constitutional authority to defend itself.
The Biden Administration has created a national security crisis and put Americans in danger. Their failure is an unconstitutional dereliction of duty.
South Dakota has been proud to help Gov. Abbott’s efforts to secure our border.
Claire Wolfe — ‘America is at that awkward stage; it’s too late to work within the system, but too early to shoot the bastards.’
AS ADDED TO the Insty/Glenn Reynolds thread ABOVE.
Now read a certain DEMOCRAT Congressman X-pressing himself and exhorting Biden to go THERE! FORCE TX submission:
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/430f7a341e4cf4ad14fb55cc21df4461f2c38302c08c9989e2b59112b438c8c3.jpg
RE: Wikipedia, and it’s manipulation, especially with regard to the issue of UFOs.
Just who controls Wikipedia, and what are you allowed to know?
For the last two nights the apparently little known or viewed “Good Trouble Show,” on Youtube, had programs devoted to a dynamite and very detailed expose titled, “UFO Coverup: The Wikipedia “Secret Cabal””
And, if true, I found the conduct/disinformation campaign outlined to be diabolical!
As if you didn’t already distrust Wikipedia, the 7th most visited website on the Internet.
Talk about playing the system, a real conspiracy, deliberate manipulation, disinformation, misinformation, and propaganda!
Did you really imagine that you were getting something close to the truth, getting objective, unbiased information, the full story, getting both sides of a subject or issue from Wikipedia?
Well, according to researcher Rob Heatherly, think again, because on the subject of UFOs–and also on apparently many other controversial subjects as well–you weren’t and aren’t at all, and it certainly appears that he has dug up a whole lot of evidence to prove it. *
See the first Good Trouble program at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bq-GuSs8kX8&t=10029s and the second Good Trouble program at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjHqE3GsI9o&t=5628s
See also https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUCBZcBY_5M
and here as well https://www.ufofeed.com/44047/seeking-critical-objective-analysis-of-the-wikipedia-ufo-uap-edit-claims-and-allegations-2024-in-depth/
TJ,
I think your explanation fits Occam’s Razor. It truly is analogous to Fermi’s Paradox. No whistleblowers are blowing whistles because opposition doesn’t exist.
It’s one of three things:
1. Uniparty. There is limited to no opposition.
2. A “deep” State apparatus actively trying to subvert the Constitution is a rightwing myth.
3. The opposition is too cowardly to act.
For those pasting very long URLs, consider using this:
https://tinyurl.com/app
Wife says it is the three c’s. They are cowards, corrupt or compromised.
Re: Long urls
One can usually shorten urls by copying the text up to the first ‘?’ Thus the really long url above can be shortened to:
https://twitter.com/KristiNoem/status/1750267433498161516
Which will work.
The Brave browser offers a “Copy clean link” option when a url is right-clicked, which also does the job.
I like seeing a clean, non-tiny url so I have some idea where I’ll go if I click.
The gibberish after the ‘?’ is mostly for user preferences and tracking information.
Huxley: I like seeing a clean, non-tiny url so I have some idea where I’ll go if I click.
Me, too. With enough of the title or a few words about the content in the URL so I have some idea if I really want to bother following that particular link.
And thanks for the URL shortening tip.