Wait, wait — you mean I missed CW 2-10???

I hope the next one comes through the first three Boxes, and never gets to Box Four. If the Republicans can stop funding our enemies, including the Democrats, and start passing the needed laws for elections and citizenship, maybe we can slip it past without ending up in a Mostly Peaceful kinetic event.

(That poke at Omar’s World War enumeration never gets old..)

I was raised by a contract attorney who often said “the best contract is the simplest and most straightforward; the greater the number, and complexity, of enumerated conditions, the greater the opportunity for unforeseen loopholes and skulduggery.”

So, as much as I very greatly mistrust government at any, and all, levels, I’m forced to accept most of the original 17th as the best choice; I have no doubt Blue legislatures are thoroughly corrupted by leftist philosophy all the way down – that’s why those states are Blue, after all – but in the absence of deliberate collusion between them, of which I also do not doubt they are desirous but probably emotionally incapable, we’re kind of required to trust them equally.

That said, some restrictions on the operation of both Houses – certainly making the byzantine internal processes completely visible is high on the list – establishing certain requirements, such as age and native born citizenship limitations, is quite reasonable.

Like neo, however, I must agree that, first, whatever conditions and restrictions are necessary must be Constitutionally-based, not statutorily, or procedurally, imposed, and getting agreement from 3/4 of the state legislatures on much, perhaps even any, of it is a fantasy in our current state. Perhaps much will change after the distressingly ineluctable revolution (aka “CWII”, in whatever form it may take) but we’ll have to wait and see.

Using my time machine, here is a comment from tomorrow that speaks to the question of bureaucrats and term limits.

https://thenewneo.com/2026/07/03/open-thread-7-3-2026/#comment-2856709

Today,flopping aces has posted a gem of an example of Deep State pervasive and pernicious evil.

How do career bureaucrats fight Trump power? Here’s how:

“Tulsi Gabbard just described the actual operating system of Washington and it’s somehow even dumber and more insulting than the conspiracy versions.

“She needed one printed document for a 10 a.m. Oval Office meeting with the President. A mid-level staffer … detailed from another agency … decided he didn’t like what was on it, printed it anyway, then locked it in his desk and refused to hand it over. Her chief of staff went down. Her general counsel went down. Both got told to pound sand until the guy’s real boss at his home agency finally gave permission.

“That’s the ‘deep state.’ Not some secret society in a basement. Just some nobody with a desk drawer and a God complex who genuinely believed his personal veto outranked the Director of National Intelligence and the elected President of the United States.

“This is what Gabbard means when she says they “thrive in the gaps between elections.” The voters pick a direction every four years. The permanent class decides which parts of that direction are even allowed to reach the Resolute Desk. They control the files. They control the information flow. And they’ve been doing it across administrations for decades because the only thing they actually answer to is each other.

“The rest of us are just supposed to pretend the elections are real…”

The speech where Tulsi lays this story out puts it more strongly than mere words can say, says Aces. https://x.com/FloppingAces/status/2073067404633256365

The Deep State as an active Trump Hating conspiracy is only the most outrageous example. Or, maybe THIS institutionalized bureaucratic rot gut is worse?

That story reminds me strongly of Lieutenant Colonel “Mr. I am in charge here” Vindman, who believed that “his” foreign policy was correct, and thus Trump must be impeached for contravening it.
https://dailycaller.com/2020/07/10/president-donald-trump-george-kent-promotion-impeachment-trial-alexander-vindman-purge/?

Vindman testified that he was “deeply troubled” by what he alleged was Trump’s attempt to “subvert” U.S. foreign policy. His testimony was among the most damaging to Trump, despite the president’s acquittal on the charges in January.

I am very glad that the Supreme Court finally ruled that the Chief Executive of the United States can actually determine the policies of the United States and fire any agency bureaucrats who think THEY are in charge.

Democrats have always been able to do this without flak, but never Republicans.

Term limits are also needed for bureaucrats for many of the same reasons.
Helps limit the “Yes, Minister” syndrome.

I was sort of shocked by the whole mess. Supposedly, it was known or perhaps common knowledge that state reps. were selling (or trading for other items of value) their votes for senators. As neo quotes, one of the primary goals of the old system was to ensure that senators would be more accountable to state interests.

But I think there was also another, possibly secondary motivation for the old system. Reps. are supposed to be selected by the populace and close to and accountable to the populace. Reps. meeting with their voters often is very much what was intended. However, I think the founders were wary of a system susceptible to occasional bouts of social hysteria. Students of governmental system like Frenchman de Tocqueville were extremely concerned about that.

Senators were supposed to be men of stature, and intellect. State representatives were supposed to pursue that in their selections. I’m not sure how wise the founders were in thinking this might actually function in the intended manner.

The other shocking thing for me reading about all this 17th A. history was, why didn’t they dream up a method to attack the primary problem. Stopping state reps. from selling their votes. Do your job properly instead. Obviously, the big question is how to do that.

A final random musing: I don’t think most of us, myself included, really appreciate just how corrupt our representatives and government functions are. Our media saturated culture is very largely swayed but all the posturing and smoke screens and subterfuge. We think maybe we are penetrating a couple layers to see the truth, but did we get past all or even most of it?

I think Art Deco enjoys coming up with them, but he is quite familiar with the fable of the mice that decided to bell the cat. Nonetheless the exercises he runs through are valuable because lots of people say that they think there’s just no solution to the problem. By demonstrating the existence of possible solutions, Art Deco shows that it’s not that the problem is insoluble, it’s that the people in position to solve a problem don’t actually want to solve them. The cat is not willing to wear a bell, no matter how good an idea it is or how many bells we come up with, and so the cat never gets belled.

They haven’t gone around the bend, they started out around the bend. Perhaps gone further though.