Page 1 of 1

Wash Post tries to lull us about Deep State

Posted: Sun Mar 12, 2017 5:46 pm
by JimZipCode

Re: Wash Post tries to lull us about Deep State

Posted: Sun Mar 12, 2017 6:36 pm
by Turdacious
There are certainly issues with an entrenched bureaucracy, but that doesn't mean that the proposals to reform it are any good.

Re: Wash Post tries to lull us about Deep State

Posted: Sun Mar 12, 2017 6:43 pm
by nafod
Turdacious wrote:There are certainly issues with an entrenched bureaucracy, but that doesn't mean that the proposals to reform it are any good.
There are issues with outsourcing to contractors too. Snowden was a contractor, and it looks like the CIA leak was a contractor.

Messy business.

Re: Wash Post tries to lull us about Deep State

Posted: Sun Mar 12, 2017 6:48 pm
by Turdacious
A decent, non-specific, read on teh topic:
For at least three decades, politicians and the public have called for “civil service reform” without a strategic view of what that might look like. Some see it as increasing accountability, others see it as streamlining and empowering employees, while yet others see it as making it easier to fire poor performers.

But little seems to happen. There have been dozens of studies and reports over the past three decades. However, there has not been a major overhaul since 1978, and many piecemeal legislative efforts, such as performance pay and streamlining the classification system, have been derailed.
http://www.govexec.com/excellence/promi ... rm/135855/

Take the serially FUBAR VHA-- would firing criminally negligent managers actually improve the organization's overall poor performance?

Re: Wash Post tries to lull us about Deep State

Posted: Sun Mar 12, 2017 6:50 pm
by Turdacious
nafod wrote:
Turdacious wrote:There are certainly issues with an entrenched bureaucracy, but that doesn't mean that the proposals to reform it are any good.
There are issues with outsourcing to contractors too. Snowden was a contractor, and it looks like the CIA leak was a contractor.

Messy business.
I know multiple contractors who have been fired for being too efficient.

Re: Wash Post tries to lull us about Deep State

Posted: Mon Mar 13, 2017 3:29 pm
by Pinky
The need for civil service reform is obvious to anyone who's spent time in the DC area, as are the reasons it doesn't happen (politics + Federal employees' union).

But going from there to this "Deep State" horseshit is laughable. The entrenched interests stopping reform of Federal agencies aren't secretly trying to run the government. They're not-so-secretly trying to avoid doing any work while still receiving one or two pay raises per year.

Re: Wash Post tries to lull us about Deep State

Posted: Mon Mar 13, 2017 3:38 pm
by Shafpocalypse Now
The whole fucking schtick about super spies, super soldiers, super spec ops is flat out fiction, and so is this super fucking competent "deep state" bureaucracy mythology.

Fuck, it's been said before, but I wish there was a super competent deep state secret government pulling the strings.

Re: Wash Post tries to lull us about Deep State

Posted: Mon Mar 13, 2017 4:07 pm
by WildGorillaMan
Shafpocalypse Now wrote:The whole fucking schtick about super spies, super soldiers, super spec ops is flat out fiction, and so is this super fucking competent "deep state" bureaucracy mythology.

Fuck, it's been said before, but I wish there was a super competent deep state secret government pulling the strings.
It would be a huge relief for everyone that there was some secret cabal of hyper-competent illuminated-ones running the world, as opposed to the venal, barely articulate assclowns we see on TV.

Re: Wash Post tries to lull us about Deep State

Posted: Mon Mar 13, 2017 4:11 pm
by nafod
WildGorillaMan wrote:
Shafpocalypse Now wrote:The whole fucking schtick about super spies, super soldiers, super spec ops is flat out fiction, and so is this super fucking competent "deep state" bureaucracy mythology.

Fuck, it's been said before, but I wish there was a super competent deep state secret government pulling the strings.
It would be a huge relief for everyone that there was some secret cabal of hyper-competent illuminated-ones running the world, as opposed to the venal, barely articulate assclowns we see on TV.
That's a mirror you are staring at, my friend. :-"

Re: Wash Post tries to lull us about Deep State

Posted: Mon Mar 13, 2017 4:46 pm
by dead man walking
WildGorillaMan wrote:
Shafpocalypse Now wrote:The whole fucking schtick about super spies, super soldiers, super spec ops is flat out fiction, and so is this super fucking competent "deep state" bureaucracy mythology.

Fuck, it's been said before, but I wish there was a super competent deep state secret government pulling the strings.
It would be a huge relief for everyone that there was some secret cabal of hyper-competent illuminated-ones running the world, as opposed to the venal, barely articulate assclowns we see on TV.
doesn't the tri-lateral commision run the world?

Re: Wash Post tries to lull us about Deep State

Posted: Mon Mar 13, 2017 10:45 pm
by Alfred_E._Neuman
dead man walking wrote: doesn't the tri-lateral commision run the world?
Clearly you mean the Bilderburgers.

Re: Wash Post tries to lull us about Deep State

Posted: Mon Mar 13, 2017 11:01 pm
by Pinky
Alfred_E._Neuman wrote:
dead man walking wrote: doesn't the tri-lateral commision run the world?
Clearly you mean the Bilderburgers.
They've always been an underrated restaurant chain.

Re: Wash Post tries to lull us about Deep State

Posted: Tue Mar 14, 2017 1:48 am
by Sassenach
Shafpocalypse Now wrote:
Fuck, it's been said before, but I wish there was a super competent deep state secret government pulling the strings.
This is what people don't get about the government and public policy in general - it's fucking complicated and hard to get it right. There's no deep-state trying to foment a quiet coup - it's just a bunch of career public policy and public service people trying to do (and keep) their goddamn jobs and keep the toddler we elected from tumbling the whole thing over with an ill-thought out twitter tantrum.

This is a good listen:
http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/02/20/tru ... reaucracy/

Re: Wash Post tries to lull us about Deep State

Posted: Wed Mar 15, 2017 12:17 pm
by Turdacious
A culture of paranoia is consuming the Trump administration, with staffers increasingly preoccupied with perceived enemies—inside their own government. In interviews, nearly a dozen White House aides and federal agency staffers described a litany of suspicions: that rival factions in the administration are trying to embarrass them, that civil servants opposed to President Donald Trump are trying to undermine him, and even that a “deep state” of career military and intelligence officials is out to destroy them.
https://secure.politico.com/story/2017/ ... oia-236069