Our bureaucracies are unaccountable and unelected. They have come to view themselves as here before elected officials got here and staying when the elected officials leave.
Articles tagged as
Bureaucracy
Special Education or Chutes and Ladders?
Governor Chris Sununu is right to be concerned that many special education students are being left behind during remote learning, but will his Emergency Order #48 make a bad situation worse by burying schools in paperwork?
Trump Directs FDA to Approve Chloroquine for Treatment of Chinese Flu
German Measles, Spanish Flu, MERS, and now Chinese Flu. Is catching it a form of cultural appropriation? Finding treatments and cures as well? Like that malaria medicine, I wrote about a few days ago. It’s being fast-tracked to treat Coronavirus patients.
State Housed Displaced Children in facility with Convicted Sex Offender
In desperate need of housing, a father and his two boys were placed in a facility by the state of Massachusetts. They’d recently escaped an abusive relationship and were, until then homeless. Thanks to the benevolent bureaucracy, their troubles were just beginning.
Massachusetts Suspends another 869 Licenses – Over 2000 Since Crash in Randolph Killed Seven
Most ruling class bureaucracies have one purpose. Grow their reach and budget. Not their responsibility or competence. The poster child for which is the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles (RMV). Seven people had to die to expose their deliberate incompetence. Related: 1,600 Massachusetts Drivers Have Their Licenses Suspended Thousands of violations over years which should … Read more
1,600 Massachusetts Drivers Have Their Licenses Suspended Following Deadly New Hampshire Crash
The tragic deaths of seven people in New Hampshire have dominated the news for weeks. Mowed down by a Ukrainian man in a truck towing a trailer. The investigation has led to a not-so-startling discovery. Government bureaucracies suck, and then people die. Oops. Sorry about that. We’ll be sure to spend more money looking into … Read more
And I think this is delightful news coming from the USDA! Git’em all out of DC!
Reformatted, emphasis mine: USDA staffers quit en masse as Trump administration eyes moving offices out of DC Employees at the U.S. Department of Agriculture are quitting at a rapid clip as Secretary Sonny Perdue prepares to move forward with plans to relocate two offices far outside the Washington, D.C., Beltway. Federal employees at the Economic Research … Read more
The Federal Bureaucracy Must Die
Finally Reining in Federal Agencies: Kiso Vs Wilkie Over the last century Congress has delegated more and more of its lawmaking authority to unaccountable, unelected administrative agencies. The bureaucracies in turn are often insulated from direct supervision by the president. Administrative agencies today issue regulations touching on nearly every aspect of our daily lives. From … Read more
Government, Pain, And Addiction
Could Government policy on pain medication be fueling heroin addiction? We explore issues with the Drug database, morons in the bureaucracy, and a policy-culture that treats regular people in need like criminals.
Data Point – Support for President Obama is falling
It has been a while since I put up the Rasmussen Daily Presidential Poll – time to restart: Since his Second Inauguration, his job approval level has been dropping – and fast. Yes, his personal approval levels remain positive (something that I have never figured out). It seems that the scandals that are now engrossing … Read more
Decay Point: Bureaucratic Sclerosis
Alas, as a society decays, its parts shrivel and wither in interestingly tragic ways. An exemplar of such decay occurred just the other day. Big Government’s bureaucratic sclerosis hit a Fire Department so hard that it felt it necessary for its, “…22 firefighters and six vehicles…” to remain idle on the shore and watch a man drown in icy water for 13 minutes, according to the Daily Caller. They “…didn’t launch an inflatable boat until just before he disappeared. The firefighters pulled Brown’s body out of the water roughly an hour after they arrived.”
“‘They followed our ice rescue guidelines pretty much to a T,’ Champaign Deputy Fire Chief Eric Mitchell told The News Gazette.”. Whew! Thank goodness. I’m sure they wouldn’t want to be cited for noncompliance. Allay your fears great citizens of Champaign, Illinois, there will be no lawsuits or fines today, only one less citizen, because our Fire Department followed the rules to a “T”. That sounds like a decent trade off, eh?
An Assault Weapon or Not An Assault Weapon…That is the Question
I’m no expert on firearms but do a fair job of knowing how government works and this “we need to do something” thing plays right into my wheelhouse.
That “something” is the desire of legislators to appear to be capable of managing our lives in every meaningful way, so when a nut plotted, planned and then literally executed his massacre, the people who always feel the need to act like what they do matters got to work.
Long story short, the professional left sees the Newtown killings as a way to re-enact the Clinton Assault weapons ban.
We here at the Grok have already thrown down a mountain of text on the event and the reaction, but we’ve not yet (to my knowledge) actually remarked on the ban itself, and more specifically, on how it would not have changed anything.
Obama Couldn’t Run A Lemonade Stand (Nor could a NH Democrat) And Here’s Why?
When the economy got rough my employer had to cut back staffing. By the time they were done we had dropped about 70% of our staff, down to the bare minimum needed to operate each department. We kept the best people and asked them to do a lot more for the same money, and sometimes less. We went to smaller quarters. We re-thought everything. We looked for fat and cut it. We analyzed how we did things when we were busy and a bit lazy and got into shape.
As it turns out, there were better, faster, and more efficient ways to get the same things done with fewer people, while spending less money. We needed to do that, we did it, and we are surviving. And if ever it comes time to grow again, then we’ll expand with more care and efficiency than before.
If we apply the way Democrats approach Government to business (our lemonade stand) it is the exact opposite.
“Obama couldn’t run a lemonade stand”, No Kidding, Who Can?
A fellow Granite Stater said, “Obama couldn’t run a lemonade stand“. Good for him, I say. I take his point: the bumbler in chief is so over his head that he can’t even muster the intellectual skill it takes to even perform a simple grade school task. But this guy should have used another example like, “Obama can’t fill out the forms that his type’s are forcing us to fill out when we want to brave opening a lemonade stand”.
“Obama couldn’t run a lemonade stand”, yeah, no kidding. Who can? Well no one can save the most artfully diligent bureaucracy seeking masochist and the well connected.
That statement used to mean something. It used to impart a negative meaning on subject of the claim. But it no longer has such a meaning. No one can run a lemonade stand any more without the proper registration, licenses, fees, permits, and Department of Lemonade Stand approval to ensure that you’re in compliance with registration, licenses, fees, and permits.
The Delphi Technique
As we find ourselves more and more exposed to committee meetings, public meetings, and even private ones, particularly with bureaucrats, paper pushers, or local or state level government officials, this bit of news might come in handy.
It’s about the Delphi Technique. From Informed Citizens United
In group settings, the Delphi Technique is an unethical method of achieving consensus on controversial topics. It requires well-trained professionals, known as “facilitators” or “change agents” who deliberately escalate tension among group members, pitting one faction against another to make a preordained viewpoint appear “sensible,” while making opposing views appear ridiculous.
Two Dick’s & Obama’s Vitamin Police
Long story short, if the regs went into place the vitamin shelf at the store would be emptied until supplement makers submitting test results to the FDA and the products were approved. And the added for battling the bureaucracy and testing regime? You’d be paying that when they products went back on the shelf, if they did.
UNH may have to Layoff More Staff
Boo hoo.
Faced with a deficit, after years of a bad economy, UNH may be forced to do what many companies had to do years ago–cut more staff. I can’t tell you how bad I feel for them. The small business I work for went from 30 employees down to 12…two years ago. Of course we were not supported by taxpayers, nor did we have unions or arbitrators insisting we pay people like Ed Larkin to do nothing for five years at the staggering cost of almost half a million dollars.
At my office we streamlined down to the bare minimum needed to keep things running, and have discovered efficiencies and opportunities to be more productive with less resources. Not only are we still in business, but things are actually looking up. Yeah, it’s more work for the rest of us, and no we have not had raises in years, but we are working and providing a product and service (and paying taxes).
But State run enterprises, or those who have become dependent on tax payer prop-ups, have little or no incentive to make those hard choices.
A New Ed “Flash” Larkin Inspired Scratch Game From The NH Lottery?
In the fall of 2009 UNH Professor Ed ‘Flash’ Larkin was put on paid leave for exposing his genitals to a young lady and her mother in the Milford Market Basket Parking lot. (My earlier remarks here.) As of October of last year, the plan was to let him go, but it looks like the Union and an arbitrator have stepped in and Flash still has a job.
Ed “Flash” Larkin has, to the best of my knowledge, continuously collected his $87,375.00 per year UNH salary, since the incident.
Under the terms of his probation, as reported in the Sunday Union Leader, he will remain on the UNH staff for another three years before being permitted to meet with students. That restriction prevents him from teaching during that time. We can only assume that a University that pays full salary during an investigation does likewise when they are told they cannot terminate said employee. Without knowing any other details, this amounts to five years worth of salary at a state supported university, to a German Language professor, for what? Exposing himself in public.
Talk about a government jobs program. Show some strangers your “little professor” at the grocery store parking lot and we’ll give you $436,875.00 over five years.
But you get forced out of your job if you just expose yourself on Twitter? I bet Anthony Weiner is pissed.
OBAMA IS TOAST
“No science is immune to the infection of politics and the corruption of power … “ —Jacob Bronowski
Solyndra is a California-based “green energy” company that sought more than $500 Million is loan guarantees from the Department of Energy and has now filed for bankruptcy protection.
Solyndra first sought consideration for the loan guarantee program (a that began under the Bush administration) during the last days of the GWB administration. They were denied. The Obama administration subsequently expanded the loan guarantee program via the stimulus and approved a half billion loan.
So now that Solyndra has sought bankruptcy protection, some private investors are lining up to get repaid even before the U.S. Taxpayers. the FBI’s criminal investigation is now seeking to know whether Solyndra execs knowingly and purposely misled DOE to obtain loan guarantees.
JOE BRIGGS ON JOB CORPS CENTER
“The two pillars of ‘political correctness’ are: a) willful ignorance; and, b) a steadfast refusal to face the truth” —George MacDonald “Reform school” was a euphemistic term used to characterize what amounted to a penal institutions for teenagers, most often boys. Social reformers of America during the late 19th and early 20th centuries decried the … Read more