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Go Army!

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Marines, you simply MUST read this unbelievable article on state of the US Army’s physical fitness. Lord we’d better not get into a fray with someone like China; they’d clean our clock. Long article, but worth the read if you really want to know the status of our “Army of One.”

Army Combat Fitness Disaster: Units Refusing to Take Test, Medics Bailing

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The U.S. Army has a readiness problem the likes of which it has not seen since the draft, and one which threatens to undermine the entire institution. This problem is called the Army Combat Fitness Test. The ACFT was designed to improve the physical fitness levels of soldiers. Because it was so poorly planned, however, 84% of women failed it straightaway, and data is scarce as to whether things have improved. This is a big problem because failure of a graded physical fitness evaluation renders a soldier ineligible for promotion, locked out of specialized training that might otherwise improve a soldier’s acumen or skillset, and ultimately, risks seeing them kicked out of the Army entirely.

Meanwhile, military medical staff—surgeons, nurses, dentists, optometrists, general physicians—are, sources tell me, eyeing ACFT standards skeptically and planning to exit the Army as soon as possible. (Congress certainly seems to fear this possibility, according to language in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021, signed into law earlier this year.) A surgeon can make a lot more money in the private sector than in a uniform. This has obvious, serious implications for military readiness, as an Army without skilled doctors is an Army in serious trouble should a new war suddenly break out.

But it gets worse, as a timeline of events will demonstrate.

In October 2019, at the start of the fiscal year, most units in the active-duty Army, National Guard, and reserve component took the old Army Physical Fitness Test. Five months later, the Army suspended all “for-record” physical fitness tests because of COVID-19. In June 2020, the Sergeant Major of the Army announced that scores from the new ACFT would not count until March 2022. Then, in October 2020, the old Army Physical Fitness Test was discontinued.

In other words, by March 2022, when the ACFT is formally and officially implemented, for many soldiers, two-and-a-half years will have elapsed between physical fitness tests! Again, what was supposed to have improved readiness has instead impaired it. Because some soldiers are eligible for two-year hitches, that means there are some soldiers in the U.S. Army who will graduate from basic training and then complete an entire enlistment without ever having to take another for-record physical fitness assessment.

Because of retention fears and massive failure rates of women, Congress ordered last year that the test be halted until the Army could demonstrate that it did not discriminate based on gender. More on that in a moment.

WHAT IS THE ACFT?

In short, the Army Combat Fitness Test consists of six events:

  • Strength Dead-Lift (140-340 pounds)
  • Standing Power Throw (10-pound medicine ball)
  • Hand-Release Push-Ups
  • Sprint-Drag-Carry (sprint, drag a 90 pound sled, and then lateral shuffle then carry two 40-pound kettlebells)
  • Leg Tuck (hanging from a pull-up bar, pull yourself up and bring your knees or thighs to your elbows) or planks (2:09 to 4:20 minutes)
  • 2-Mile Run (minimum: 13:30 minutes, to maximum: 21:00 minutes)

(Just for the record, I called the ACFT a looming disaster in 2018. Sometimes I hate being right.)

WHERE DID IT COME FROM?

Every so often, the Defense Department decides with utter conviction who the new enemy will be, and prepares for war against them, and then the actual enemies come along and sucker punch the United States. In 1990, the U.S. had the best army on Earth for fighting the Soviet Union, and then Saddam Hussein decided to invade Kuwait. Months before 9/11, the Pentagon was planning for space warfare, and then terrorists used boxcutters to bring down airliners on U.S. soil. When Special Forces arrived in Afghanistan, they didn’t need intercontinental ballistic missile shields; they needed horses, and used cavalry tactics not seen since the Spanish American War. Now we are preparing to fight a nice, big, old fashioned land war in China, or even on U.S. soil. Consequently, I expect we will be invading an island country in the Atlantic or slogging it out in Antarctica any day now.

But from this new defense posture was borne the need for a new physical fitness test to test for the sorts of war-fighting events a soldier might expect to perform when life imitated Red Dawn. Even in garrison, Ft. Lewis to Ft. Devens, sea to shining sea, soldiers needed to be ready. People’s Liberation Army paratroopers could fill the skies over the Statue of Liberty at a moment’s notice.

Thus the abandonment of the allegedly inferior Army Physical Fitness Test in favor of the newly-dubbed Army Combat Fitness Test (ACFT), whose new name is much more in fitting with an Army rebranding that began in 2001 with the black beret, led to the ill-fitting black (and quickly discontinued) Army Service Uniform, and has since yielded (sigh) “Warrior Restaurants.” (At this point I have to believe that the Marines have secretly taken control of the Army and are doing everything they can to annihilate the dignity of soldiers and drive high school grads into the loving arms of Marine Corps recruiters.) Ooh-Rah!

What the heck is a “Warrior Restaurant? Is that what the Army calls their chow halls? Oh Lord, give me a break

THE ARMY COMBAT FITNESS TEST IS EXPENSIVE

You might have noticed in the above list that an awful lot of hardware is necessary for this test. (Much more is needed than that, in fact, so that multiple soldiers might take the test simultaneously.) Just so that we have some perspective on things: To do the old Army Physical Fitness Test, all a company needed was a clipboard, a pencil, and a stopwatch. Each of those items could be purchased new at the dollar store, total price: $3. (Let’s round it up to $10, though, to include the mileage on someone’s POV.) Two hours later, you would have a complete evaluation of your unit’s physical fitness levels.

I remind you of this because the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command took a good hard look at the APFT, its three-dollar price tag and the generation of hardened infantry soldiers, special operations forces, and others, and said, no. No no no this won’t do at all. What we really need (and I cannot believe I am about to type these words) to evaluate the physical fitness of soldiers is $68 million worth of equipment and a mandatory testing ground whose conditions are rarely found outside of Biosphere 2.

CHANGE FOR THE SAKE OF CHANGE

To be clear: I have never once in my life seen a soldier max the old Army Physical Fitness Test and not be in superb shape. You show me a soldier with a 300 on his or her score sheet, and I’ll show you someone who is lean and mean and fit to fight.

But to be generous, perhaps TRADOC looked at soldier fitness and believed that the Army just wasn’t where it needed to be. They are probably right! But rather than cripple Army readiness with an absurd Homer-mobile of a “combat fitness” test, they could have simply raised the minimum scores of the already demonstrably effective Army Physical Fitness Test. What once was a minimum 60 in an event could have been elevated to a 70 or higher. That meeting would have looked something like this: “Hmm, this 25-year-old male only has to do forty pushups to demonstrate upper body strength. That seems low, and he is ill-equipped for the rigors of modern warfare and the gear a soldier must carry. Let’s raise the minimum to sixty-five pushups.” Total price to roll out the new test: Whatever an email message costs in electricity. Three cents?

No. Instead, the Army said that we definitely need hexagonal trap bars, pulling sleds, medicine balls, kettlebells, and 550 pounds of plates. It just makes sense! I’m surprised they didn’t mandate that soldiers flip and roll those giant tires that CrossFit gyms love so much. Scratch that—I’m not surprised at all. That would actually be a useful battlefield skill, and something that any soldier, his or her entire post under attack in sudden, full scale war, might actually need to do. LMTV tires are no joke.

This is where it gets worse. If you are in the Army Reserve or National Guard—i.e., the majority of the Army—you are just out of luck in the new physical fitness regime. You only have access to the training equipment two days per month, during drill, and Planet Fitness doesn’t stock sleds. But don’t worry, 17-year-old E-2 who makes minimum wage in your civilian job! You can purchase a complete ACFT equipment kit for $2,350. When those enemy tanks roll across Kansas corn fields, you want to be ready, don’t you?

SOLVING THE ACFT LEG TUCK

I don’t even know how to explain this without a flowchart, but I am a professional and will give it a go. Previously, the ACFT mandated a testing event called a leg tuck to determine the core strength of a soldier. The problem: 72% of women were failing it. The solution TRADOC has provided: Soldiers can perform a plank as an alternative to the leg tuck. That seems fair, but…

According to a letter sent out by the Sergeant Major of the Army: “Each Soldier will indicate which core strength test event they will do before the test begins. The reason we are keeping the Leg Tuck, and adding the Plank, is that the Leg Tuck is a better correlation to fitness requirements for Warrior Tasks and Battle Drills (WTBDs) and Soldier common tasks.  By making the Plank a fully graded, alternate assessment, we are working to give Soldiers who are currently struggling with the Leg Tuck, a chance to succeed on the ACFT, while adapting their physical readiness training to the Army’s changing culture of fitness.” Oh, that’s a good move. LOL

So which is it? Are we designing a test to give absolute, rock solid evidence of a soldier’s fitness for modern warfare, or are we just… making things up? Because it’s a binary situation. If WTBD proficiency—things like movement under fire, evacuating casualties, and so on—is a necessary prerequisite for modern warfare (and I agree it is), then why are you yielding on leg tucks?

It’s almost like the leg tuck event is just made up, a metric and not the metric. Perhaps—it sure seems that way—that the entire ACFT is a collection of expensive, invented tests that might, yes, improve the fitness of some, but at the expense of the whole. Because while it would be nice if cooks, helicopter mechanics, paralegals, and linguists could, at a moment’s notice, graduate Ranger school, maybe—just maybe—retention with a basic level of physical fitness is more important than the ability to achieve the fetal position while hanging from a pull-up bar. The Army is losing medical doctors to this thing. I have profound respect for Cav scouts, but I don’t want one performing surgery on me.

As one insider who spoke under the condition of anonymity told me last year: “This test was made up out of thin air. There is no ‘raising’ or ‘lowering’ of standards because this test is not a standard. It is a made up, make-believe set of criteria that never been used before to determine the combat fitness of any soldier, sailor, airman, or Marine. It’s totally made up. And so we don’t know if this truly measures combat fitness. What we do know is the Army Physical Fitness Test has been used for the last 30 years, and we have put hundreds of thousands of people into combat successfully based on it. The [new] ACFT is a made-up set of exercises and repetitions that has absolutely no basis in a real-life combat experience because it’s never been required before.”

CONGRESS GETS INVOLVED

Last year, Congress issued an edict to the U.S. Army to get to the bottom of the ACFT fiasco. Among other things, representatives wanted to know “the extent, if any, to which the test would adversely impact members of the Army stationed or deployed to climates or areas with conditions that make prohibitive the conduct of outdoor physical training on a frequent or sustained basis,” and “the extent, if any, to which the test would affect recruitment and retention in critical support military occupational specialties of the Army, such as medical personnel.”

Officials tasked the RAND Corporation, an independent, non-profit think tank in Washington D.C., with this endeavor. But I was curious how RAND’s experts would do this. Would they send observers to take notes from the field, or would they run statistical analyses on ACFT results thus far, or would they build their own group of non-Army test-takers, or perhaps do some combination of all this?

So I reached out to the RAND Corporation, and a spokesperson could confirm only that they are, in fact, conducting research on the Army Combat Fitness Test, but that said research was in the very early stages, and in any event, they can’t talk about it until their work is complete. Next, I reached out to the Army, who has yet to respond to my request, aside from acknowledging its receipt. (If and when they respond, I will update this story.)

There is a problem with all this. Because the ACFT is not presently mandatory per Congress, units are not taking it. But the Army is desperate for more data points to prove that the ACFT is good. (I mean they’ve got no place to go but up!) In the same letter from the Sergeant Major of the Army, he practically begged units to get with the program—to jump on the team and come on in for the big win:

“The refinements will be data driven and it’s critical we make training for, and taking the ACFT, one of our highest priorities. As of last week, only 25% of the Army had taken the test. We cannot, and should not, make final policy decisions based this limited data set..”  I assume “data driven” means if enough percentage don’t score well or even pass, we will lower the standards.

Congress is waiting, and the RAND study looms. The ACFT stumbles onward, while the waistlines of some soldiers expand, surgeons plan their exits, and readiness reaches a nadir: all problems invented by a test, which then claimed it could solve them.

UPDATE: Army spokesperson Matthew Leonard says, regarding the RAND study of the ACFT: “The Army asked the RAND Arroyo Center to independently review the Army’s development of the ACFT and contribute to ongoing discussions regarding its implementation. RAND began conducting the ACFT implementation study in first quarter FY21. The Army is providing all applicable training data through the Digital Training Management System (DTMS), which is the Army’s system for recording planned and completed training. All Army units will continue to train and test the ACFT and enter scoring data into DTMS. During the study period only RAND and select Army research elements will have access to DTMS data.”

Oh well, otherwise all’s well in the Woke Army Swamp today.

Originally posted 2021-04-10 14:36:26.

Current Events, videos

Michael on America

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I know not when this video was made, but from some of the dates he uses, I suspect it may a be a year or two old, HOWEVER, it applies even more so today then it did when he made it. What is amazing is that he even made it! I am sure he is not held in high esteem by his fellow Hollywood elites. Anyway, sit back, watch, listen, and learn. Oh, and also enjoy one of my favorite actors.

Anybody figured out what he “thinks” the answer might be? I don’t know but by the way he ends it, he may be thinking third party. Personally, I am of the same belief. I know it would be a tough row to hoe, but it could be done. I believe it with all my heart and soul with God’s help. Have faith brothers and sisters! Have faith

Originally posted 2021-02-26 10:24:27.

Current Events

USSA

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You ask what does USSA stands for? Read on!

Unityville, USSA

By: Greg Maresca

 

America has endured the worst public health crisis in a century, 70 million claims for unemployment, trillions of dollars in borrowed “stimulus,” civil unrest, a belligerent communist China, convoys of illegal immigrants on their way to the border, which begs the question what exactly is the priority of the Biden administration?

Apparently, impeaching the former president in an attempt to divide the GOP by splintering the MAGA and establishment Republicans, while simultaneously signing a record number of presidential executive orders is.

Call it unity – Biden style, which offers platitudes about bipartisanship and national harmony, while delivering leftist executive orders on a historic scale.

Our cognitively challenged executive order signer-in-chief is ratifying whatever his leftist minions put in front of him as your next president in waiting Kamala Harris is seemingly pulling the strings standing in the shadows.

With thousands of National Guard troops from every state in the union present for Biden’s inauguration, you can put to rest the notion that no one ever shows up for Biden.  Then again, perhaps they were there to ensure that Biden does not flee back to his basement campaign bunker.

How can signing so many executive orders on his first day in office – more than any other president – truly desire unity?  Talk of unity is one thing, but to govern, as the cliché goes, is to choose.  Biden’s choice is clear – govern by executive fiat. Biden’s calls for unity are strictly virtue signaling and intended to shame all who disagree.

Recall Biden’s October interview with ABC News honcho George Stephanopoulos where candidate Biden emphasized how “executive orders are the response of dictators.”  Biden talked up consensus, but since becoming president he has done the exact opposite.

Biden’s executive orders include wrecking women’s sports by allowing a man who identifies as a woman can now compete against them.  Ending thousands of jobs by stopping the Keystone Pipeline, and terminating the deportation of illegal immigrants who have committed serious crimes – all extreme measures.  In 1984, President Reagan established the Mexico City Policy, which forbids American tax dollars from supporting international abortions.  In 1993, President Clinton rescinded it. Since then, the policy has been re-enacted by every Republican president and rescinded by every Democrat.  Biden desires to revoke it permanently.

The Wall Street Journal is calling Biden’s executive order jamboree the biggest expansion of federal power since the Great Society with more on the way.

Democrats and their allies throughout the mainstream media have insisted that conservatives need to be “reprogrammed and reeducated,” a phrase out of Nazi Germany, which has only fueled hateful rhetoric throughout social media.

Welcome to 21st century America where the literary works of George Orwell continues to spook our fruited plain.  One wandering soul pontificated how they are looking forward to political reeducation classes because they always wondered what college would have been like sober.

When I get back from my re-education camp, I will grasp that Unityville is not just a township in Pennsylvania’s Lycoming County, or a hamlet in South Dakota, but budding from sea to shining sea.  In my new reprogrammed unifying self, I will forever congratulate Joe Biden for winning the 2020 presidential election and Bobby Bonds for breaking Major League Baseball’s home run record, Lance Armstrong for his numerous Tour de France victories and those Tinsel Town actors for getting their darling progeny into elite universities.

If the Biden administration was serious, they would consent Congress to legislate, while promoting a spirited public discourse – stimulating the democratic process on a national level.

Instead, Biden has doubled down on “identity politics” and resuscitating “critical race theory,” while promoting equity over equality that divides people into victims and villains by race, gender, income, and education, ad nauseam.

Whatever happened to just being an American?

Over the next four years forget about the nation’s Fourth Estate of holding the Biden administration accountable. Only the next election can do that and given the severe lack of historical and civic knowledge of your average American that is unlikely to happen. Moreover, any semblance of unity will not be possible if we cannot agree that an inflated government is no universal panacea.

We are not yet the United Socialist States of America – but certainly on our way.

Gang, if you don’t think we are on our way to becoming the USSA, you’ve been living under a rock. We, as conservatives, MUST continue the fight or we will become the USSA.  Someone has even developed the country’s flag when it happens. DO NOT donate to the RNC or the GOP; they are not our friends. Donate to individual candidates even if they are not in your State, but vet them thoroughly! God help us!

 

 

 

 

Originally posted 2021-02-03 19:31:58.

Current Events

A MUST read for every American

2 Comments

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Den of Thieves 

Unequivocally, the best article I have read since Trump became elected. This is a must read by every single American regardless of your side of the aisle. It explains why every Democrat and many Republicans hate Trump. They cannot and will not allow him another four years. How does a congressperson spend 10 years in office making $174,000 annually ($1,740,000) retire as a multimillionaire? Herein lies the answer to that question. Folks, we are being bamboozled by crooks. It all makes perfect sense as to why during the past 3 1/2 years not much legislation has been voted on and signed by the president. If this does not open your eyes and piss you off, you have been living under a rock so crawl back under it. I read this twice just to make sure I absorbed it all.

In my humble view, the only possible answer to this travesty of justice is term limits. LOL, but that’s like asking the Fox to build a Fox proof hen house. Never happen until every average American gets pissed off enough to join together and make it happen. Watch this election; the liberals cannot afford Trump for another four years!

Oh Dear, Kentucky Representative Thomas Massie Touches the Third Rail – Reveals DC’s Biggest Secret…

Posted on April 28, 2020 by sundance

With congress saying they will not be returning to work next week, it appears Kentucky representative Thomas Massie has decided to use the opportunity to expose Washington DC’s biggest secret.  Something 99% of American voters do not understand:

Oh dear, he’s telling secrets.  You see, congress doesn’t actually write legislation.  The last item of legislation written by congress was sometime around the mid 1990’s.  Modern legislation is sub-contracted to K-Street.  Lobbyists write the laws; congress sells the laws; lobbyists then pay congress commissions for passing their laws.  That’s the modern legislative business in DC.

CTH often describes the background DC motives with the phrase: “There are Trillions at Stake.” The process of creating legislation is behind that phrase.  DC politics is not quite based on the ideas that frame most voter’s reference points.

With people taking notice of DC politics for the first time; and with people not as familiar with the purpose of DC politics; perhaps it is valuable to provide clarity.

Most people think when they vote for a federal politician -a House or Senate representative- they are voting for a person who will go to Washington DC and write or enact legislation. This is the old-fashioned “schoolhouse rock” perspective based on decades past. There is not a single person in congress writing legislation or laws.

In modern politics not a single member of the House of Representatives or Senator writes a law, or puts pen to paper to write out a legislative construct. This simply doesn’t happen.

Over the past several decades a system of constructing legislation has taken over Washington DC that more resembles a business operation than a legislative body. Here’s how it works right now.

Outside groups, often called “special interest groups”, are entities that represent their interests in legislative constructs. These groups are often representing foreign governments, Wall Street multinational corporations, banks, financial groups or businesses; or smaller groups of people with a similar connection who come together and form a larger group under an umbrella of interest specific to their affiliation.

Sometimes the groups are social interest groups; activists, climate groups, environmental interests etc. The social interest groups are usually non-profit constructs who depend on the expenditures of government to sustain their cause or need.

The for-profit groups (mostly business) have a purpose in Washington DC to shape policy, legislation and laws favorable to their interests. They have fully staffed offices just like any business would – only their ‘business‘ is getting legislation for their unique interests.

These groups are filled with highly-paid lawyers who represent the interests of the entity and actually write laws and legislation briefs.

In the modern era this is actually the origination of the laws that we eventually see passed by congress. Within the walls of these buildings within Washington DC is where the ‘sausage’ is actually made.

Again, no elected official is usually part of this law origination process.

Almost all legislation created is not ‘high profile’, they are obscure changes to current laws, regulations or policies that no-one pays attention to. The passage of the general bills within legislation is not covered in media. Ninety-nine percent of legislative activity happens without anyone outside the system even paying any attention to it.

Once the corporation or representative organizational entity has written the law they want to see passed – they hand it off to the lobbyists.

The lobbyists are people who have deep contacts within the political bodies of the legislative branch, usually former House/Senate staff or former House/Senate politicians themselves.

The lobbyist takes the written brief, the legislative construct, and it’s their job to go to congress and sell it.

“Selling it” means finding politicians who will accept the brief, sponsor their bill and eventually get it to a vote and passage. The lobbyist does this by visiting the politician in their office, or, most currently familiar, by inviting the politician to an event they are hosting. The event is called a junket when it involves travel.

Often the lobbying “event” might be a weekend trip to a ski resort, or a “conference” that takes place at a resort. The actual sales pitch for the bill is usually not too long and the majority of the time is just like a mini vacation etc.

The size of the indulgence within the event, the amount of money the lobbyist is spending, is customarily related to the scale of benefit within the bill the sponsoring business entity is pushing. If the sponsoring business or interest group can gain a lot of financial benefit from the legislation they spend a lot on the indulgences.

Recap: Corporations (special interest group) write the legislation. Lobbyists take the law and go find politician(s) to support it. Politicians get support from their peers using tenure and status etc. Eventually, if things go according to norm, the legislation gets a vote.

Within every step of the process there are expense account lunches, dinners, trips, venue tickets and a host of other customary financial way-points to generate/leverage a successful outcome. The amount of money spent is proportional to the benefit derived from the outcome.

The important part to remember is that the origination of the entire process is EXTERNAL to congress.

Congress does not write laws or legislation, special interest groups do. Lobbyists are paid, some very well paid, to get politicians to go along with the need of the legislative group.

When you are voting for a Congressional Rep or a U.S. Senator you are not voting for a person who will write laws. Your rep only votes on legislation to approve or disapprove of constructs that are written by outside groups and sold to them through lobbyists who work for those outside groups.

While all of this is happening the same outside groups who write the laws are providing money for the campaigns of the politicians they need to pass them. This construct sets up the quid-pro-quo of influence, although much of it is fraught with plausible deniability.

This is the way legislation is created.

If your frame of reference is not established in this basic understanding you can often fall into the trap of viewing a politician, or political vote, through a false prism.

The modern origin of all legislative constructs is not within congress.

“we’ll have to pass the bill to, well, find out what is in the bill” etc. ~ Nancy Pelosi 2009

“We rely upon the stupidity of the American voter” ~ Johnathan Gruber 2011, 2012.

Once you understand this process you can understand how politicians get rich.

When a House or Senate member becomes educated on the intent of the legislation, they have attended the sales pitch; and when they find out the likelihood of support for that legislation; they can then position their own (or their families) financial interests to benefit from the consequence of passage. It is a process similar to insider trading on Wall Street, except the trading is based on knowing who will benefit from a legislative passage.

The legislative construct passes from K-Street into the halls of congress through congressional committees. The law originates from the committee to the full House or Senate. Committee seats which vote on these bills are therefore more valuable to the lobbyists. Chairs of these committees are exponentially more valuable.

Now, think about this reality against the backdrop of the 2016 Presidential Election. Legislation is passed based on ideology. In the aftermath of the 2016 election the system within DC was not structurally set-up to receive a Donald Trump presidency.

If Hillary Clinton had won the election, her Oval Office desk would be filled with legislation passed by congress which she would have been signing. Heck, she’d have writer’s cramp from all of the special interest legislation, driven by special interest groups that supported her campaign, that would be flowing to her desk.

Why?

Simply because the authors of the legislation, the originating special interest and lobbying groups, were spending millions to fund her campaign. Hillary Clinton would be signing K-Street constructed special interest legislation to repay all of those donors/investors.

Congress would be fast-tracking the passage because the same interest groups also fund the members of congress.

President Donald Trump winning the election threw a monkey wrench into the entire DC system…. In early 2017 the modern legislative machine was frozen in place.

The “America First” policies represented by candidate Donald Trump were not within the legislative constructs coming from the K-Street authors of the legislation. There were no MAGA lobbyists waiting on Trump ideology to advance legislation based on America First objectives.

As a result of an empty feeder system, in early 2017 congress had no bills to advance because all of the myriad of bills and briefs written were not in line with President Trump policy. There was simply no entity within DC writing legislation that was in-line with President Trump’s America-First’ economic and foreign policy agenda.

Exactly the opposite was true. All of the DC legislative briefs and constructs were/are antithetical to Trump policy. There were hundreds of file boxes filled with thousands of legislative constructs that became worthless when Donald Trump won the election.

Those legislative constructs (briefs) representing tens of millions of dollars worth of time and influence were just sitting there piled up in boxes under desks and in closets amid K-Street and the congressional offices. Legislation needed to be in-line with an entire new political perspective, and there was no-one, no special interest or lobbying group, currently occupying DC office space with any interest in synergy with Trump policy.

Think about the larger ramifications within that truism. That is also why there was/is so much opposition.

No legislation provided by outside interests means no work for lobbyists who sell it. No work means no money. No money means no expense accounts. No expenses means politicians paying for their own indulgences etc.

Politicians were not happy without their indulgences, but the issue was actually bigger. No K-Street expenditures also means no personal benefit; and no opportunity to advance financial benefit from the insider trading system.

Without the ability to position personal wealth for benefit, why would a politician stay in office? The income of many long-term politicians on both Republican and Democrat sides of the aisle was completely disrupted by President Trump winning the election. That is one of the key reason why so many politicians retired immediately thereafter.

When we understand the business of DC, we understand the difference between legislation with a traditional purpose and modern legislation with a financial and political agenda.

Lastly, this is why -when signing legislation- President Trump often says “they’ve been trying to get this through for a long time” etc. Most of the legislation passed by congress and signed by President Trump in his first term is older legislative proposals, with little indulgent value, that were shelved in years past.

Example: Criminal justice reform did not carry a financial benefit to the legislative bodies, and there was no financial interest funding the politicians to pass the bill. If you look at most of the bills President Trump has signed, with the exception of a few economic bills, they stem from congressional construction many years, even decades, ago.

Originally posted 2020-05-03 11:35:18.

Recent Posts

It’s Time Has Come!

6 Comments

Yes, it is time we as Americans take back our country from the rich, greedy, power hungry, self centered, narcissistic horde who have lost touch with us, the real Americans. They believe they know better than the average American what is best for our once beloved and proud country. This issue should be the number one topic for the next election. This should have been a question at the Democrap Clown Hours (aka debates). It must be a referendum to be voted on by us and not left for “them” to decide!!

Please like if you agree and leave me some comments as I’d like to know your thoughts on the issue. This video is a classic, and the best I have ever heard on the issue. Speak up and be part of the movement or shut up and remain a lamb.

 

Originally posted 2020-03-01 08:24:28.