Lois Lerner -redux. Yesterday, Lois confronted the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chaired by Darrell Issa. She made an opening statement. In it she asserted “I have not done anything wrong. I have not broken any laws. I have not violated any IRS rules or regulations, and I have not provided false information to this or any other committee.” She then took the 5th - and refused to answer further inquiry about her tenure at the IRS. It appears such a statement opens her to questions relevant to her statements. It was all theater. Yet, one must inquire why her lawyer permitted such a statement, opening her to future inquiry. One guess is that her lawyer was an operative arranged for this amazingly loyal servant to her position. She got really bad advise, possibly the subject of an upcoming suit. Unless, of course, she is "willful." I guess one cannot claim total innocence of one's activities without venting and opening the same activities to legal scrutiny. Lois is either totally stupid or totally used, or both.
I am thinking that loyalty is a key component to rising up within the government structure. Loyal folks can be used and discarded, and they never even know it happened. Under the bus? That would be easy. Lois finds herself lodged in a trash compactor.
There is no Tea Party. In fact, there are too many tea parties. There is no UTP – a Unified Tea Party. Each is an independent agency of action for the situations within the USA – mostly very conservative and fiscally very much so. The far left, assumed not to be you, wishes to lump them all as a single entity for attack. This makes the demonization possible and credible. The far right, assumed not to be you, wishes to lump them as a viable force to oppose Administrative goals and programs. I have never seen such grassroots organizations assemble toward a common purpose. The left wishes to denigrate them; the right wishes to co-opt them. Yet they struggle to remain independent and to focus on the issues important in their views. It would be wonderful to see such a spontaneous organization of supportive groups pertaining to, for example, the Affordable Care Act. This is how our democracy works. It is the only way democracy can work, maintain, and sustain.
The President has not the time. There have been numerous scandals within the
current administration. There are the AP
and now Fox wiretapping, the IRS targets, the Benghazi fiasco. Excepting the latter, which just seemed to
have mushroomed, managing these takes time, consideration, and operation. Therefore there must be someone or some group
at the switches of control. The
President is now confronted with multiple streams of damage control.
The President wants to
be exclusively concerned with his programs of social justice.
I feel certain he is at his whit’s end of what to do. When all the strings were taught, when all
the angles were calculated, when most of
the press was quiescent, and when all the agents were on board, all was calm -
swimmingly. Now valuable time is
expended on damage control – seemingly out of control. Multiple stories have been created, but are
somewhat conflicted. The conflicts themselves, regardless of content,
have become news. We saw this control issue
earlier with the numbers of unemployed and jobs created via the stimulus bill. Eventually, on this small issue all cognizant
parties were on the same page, i.e. issuing the same numbers. Elementary this was compared with bigger matters
now afoot.
We may say these inferences are made within the weak topology of
national politics.
---------------------------------------Under the bus. It seems Lois Lerner, division chief at the IRS accused of targeting conservative groups applying for tax exempt status, must testify before Congress about the IRS scandal. She plans to take the fifth - to avoid self incrimination. This means she is cognizant that any words of her testimony may be used in a criminal prosecution against her. This means she views there are indictable offenses. This implies she is now “under the bus.” Another loyal servant of the system is sacrificed to the greater good of her higher-ups. It is not the first time. It will not be the last. It appears that a bad spot to be in is above the mid-level yet below the inner core. Such folks are destined for the China Box.
Jay Carney. There are multiple reports that Presidential press secretary is at the end of his credibility both with the press and also with the administration he represents. On the face of it, he is a decent person fully supporting the administrative position. Yet he seems to equivocate. How long can he sustain, maintain his situation? What should Jay do? I'll bet at even odds he doesn't know.
Apology. There is a difference between an apology and and expression of regret. (according to Doug Shulman, commissioner of the IRS, as indicated by John Cornyn, senator) Former IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman told a Senate panel he was “dismayed” and “saddened” after reading an inspector general’s report last week that concluded agency employees wrongly targeted conservative groups seeking a tax exemption.
While many of us think this is splitting hairs, it does illustrate how some officials regard and have interpreted their knowledge of the current IRS procedures.
Extreme. Even the extremists don't really believe the extreme of their positions, unless they're quite stupid. They just like to hear it. Going extreme, whether politically, scientifically, socially, spiritually, or even philosophically gains a few inches of attention. It fades quickly.
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Domino theory.
Everyone believes in domino theory, even while ridiculing others who
seem to make domino-like conclusions.
Domino theory is mankind’s natural inductive thinking combined with
bad-outcome worries.
Flipping the classroom without proper research or even
testing may amount to ripping apart the nation’s institution of education, and allowing
it to slip headlong to ineffectuality.
Note: Flipping the classroom means that students are assigned videos to watch
and problems to consider before coming to class. Class time is then substantially devoted to
problem solving. Recall when you were a student and were assigned readings, etc before coming to class. Same as "flipping" but without the glitter of videos. Didn't work then. Won't work now.
The Parties. Democrats clearly have many legislative ideas and like to pass
laws or make regulations. They should never
be trusted to execute or operate their adventurous programs. Their solution for every glitch is invariably to throw
upon it more money, regulations, and/or more staff. Republicans generally prefer no legislation unless closely targeted to an exigency of their choosing. Would that compromise would come back in fashion. Any hope here?
Growing up. Some children merely grow up, having never been properly
raised. Unless… you count as being raised to be the net
effects of TV-sit-coms, video games, social contacts, and social media (twitter, Facebook, and texting).
Adults. For many adults there is little knowledge of morality, or of
ethics, or have any type of moral compass.
For many adults, too many, there is little more to life than grabbing
what you can get regardless of injury. It
is the fashion of the day and moreover has been accepted in general, though
rarely in specifics.
Tuning elections. It
used to be those uninterested in government didn’t vote. Interested and informed citizens did. No longer.
Political parties are now summonsing and transporting disinterested,
uninformed, unknowledgeable, and uneducated citizens to the polls with assumption they will
vote in a particular manner.
Messaging: The new communication tools of our new age. Letters? Forget them. Too much work.
- Twitter. Akin to a dog's bark or a cat's meow, with all the depth therein implied. Even politicians are into this. A perfect communications medium for these types.
- Texting. Adding a useless ultra-brief comment upon a stream of ultra-brief comments. Suitable for teens, deplorable for adults. All this with a new "texting" lexicon. But great for brief messages that need to be brief. As one said, "He was thankfully brief and had every reason to be so."
- Facebook. A celebration and promotion of oneself, with facts disregarded, even ignored. Some actually give news, a small plus in the exabytes of posts.
- email. By many an antiquated tool usually indicating a one-to-one message. Often deprecated by students as having little value.
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