Scroll down to read this post.

 

My February birthday fund-raising campaign for this website, Behind the Black, is now over. Despite a relatively weak initial three weeks, the last week was spectacular, making this campaign the second best ever.

 

Thanks to every person who donated or subscribed. It continues to astonish me that people who can read my work for free like it enough to donate money voluntarily. Words cannot express my appreciation for that support, especially in these uncertain times.

 

If you have been a regular reader and a fan of my work and have not yet donated or subscribed, please consider doing so. I take no ads, I keep the website clean from pop-ups and annoying demands (most of the time). Thus, I depend entirely on my readers to support me. Though this means I am sacrificing some income, it also means that I remain entirely independent from outside pressure. By depending solely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, no one can threaten me with censorship. You don't like what I write, you can simply go elsewhere.

 

You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:

 

1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.

 

2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
 

3. A Paypal Donation:

4. A Paypal subscription:


5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
 
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652


The squealing of pigs

Back in October 2010, just days before the mid-term elections, I wrote the following:

For the sake of argument, let’s assume that, come Tuesday, the Republicans take both houses, in a stunning landslide not seen in more than a century. Let’s also assume that the changes in Congress are going to point decidedly away from the recent liberal policies of large government (by both parties). Instead, every indication suggests that the new Congress will lean heavily towards a return to the principles of small government, low taxes, and less regulation.

These assumptions are not unreasonable. Not only do the polls indicate that one or both of the houses of Congress will switch from Democratic to Republican control, the numerous and unexpected primary upsets of established incumbents from both parties — as well the many protests over the past year by large numbers of ordinary citizens — make it clear that the public is not interested in half measures. Come January, the tone and direction of Congress is going to undergo a shocking change.

Anyway, based on these assumptions, we should then expect next year’s Congress to propose unprecedented cuts to the federal budget, including the elimination of many hallowed programs. The recent calls to defund NPR and the Corporation for Public Broadcastings are only one example.

When Congress attempts this, however, the vested interests that have depended on this funding for decades are not going to take the cuts lightly. Or to put it more bluntly, they are going to squeal like pigs, throwing temper tantrums so loud and insane that they will make the complaints of a typical three-year-old seem truly statesman-like. And they will do so in the hope that they will garner sympathy and support from the general voting public, thereby making the cuts difficult to carry out.

The real question then is not whether the new Congress will propose the cuts required to bring the federal government under control, but whether they, as well as the public, will have the courage to follow through, to defy the howls from these spoiled brats, and do what must be done.

The legislative situation with NASA over the summer and fall might give us a hint about whether the next Congress will have the courage to make the cuts that are necessary. In this case Obama actually proposed doing something close to what conservatives have dreamed of for decades: take NASA (and the government) out of the business of building rockets and spacecraft and pass it over to the private sector.

Moreover, despite the strong dislike the right has for Obama and his leftist policies, many conservative pundits both inside and outside of the space activist community publicly supported the President in this effort.

Nonetheless, these policies were not accepted by Congress. Instead, the legislative body passed an authorization bill that requires NASA to build a new heavy-lift rocket and the manned capsule to go with it. Congress did this partly for national security reasons, but mostly because they wanted to protect the jobs in Houston, Florida, and elsewhere that NASA provides, and thus bring home the bacon to their constituents. And they did this because those constituents had squealed at them about the threatened loss of funding.

In other words, elected officials from both parties had teamed up to authorize this pork-laden program in order to keep the pigs quiet. In other words, NASA’s legislative history this past year does not give us an encouraging view of the future. It appears that Congress will give us the same-old same-old, when asked.

More than six years have passed, and my analysis of the situation in 2010 appears almost perfect. While the Republicans did not win both houses of Congress in 2010, they did in 2014. Despite these victories from voters who clearly wanted them to cut back on the power of government, they did exactly what I expected, based on their actions in connection with NASA and SLS: maintain the pork and chicken out whenever challenged by Obama, the Democrats, the press (I repeat myself), and too many spoiled members of the general public.

After the 2016 elections, things have moved even more to the right. The Republicans not only control both houses of Congress, they have a Republican president (though a very unpredictable one) and the leftwing mainstream press has been discredited and no longer monopolizes the distribution of information. What will happen in the coming years?

For one thing, we can surely expect the squealing of pigs to continue. Below is only a small sampling of recent articles describing the response by the press, scientists, and many leftwing politicians (from both parties) to Trump’s election and his picks in connection with climate research:

The first link above is referring specifically to a 74 page list of questions submitted to the Department of Energy by the Trump transition team, designed quite intentionally to provide the information they need to take over the running of the Department, which by law Trump now controls. Unlike the mainstream Democratic press, which focused on only one question (which asked for the names of those DOE employees who have attended a variety of recent climate meetings), the entire list of questions is analyzed in detail at this link. As the author there concludes:

My first take from all of this is that there will be a top-to-bottom shakeup of the DOE, with deadwood cut, permitting carefully reassessed, positions eliminated, labs merged, the EIA charged with giving real numbers, nuclear strengthened, and the climate nonsense moved way down the list.

My second take from all of this is that the people who made the memo are very good at their job. They’ve asked all of the right questions and then some.

However, I don’t find in this anything to support the claim that the new Administration is looking to hold up a list of scientists for opprobrium, or that they plan to interfere in the scientific process. As with every incoming Administration, they DO plan to refocus and redirect the overall future course of the agency, which will inescapably mean that the scientific studies will move in a different direction.

Finally, folks, lets get real. Every Administration has chosen the scientists it want to be studying things, and has told them what the Administration wants them to study. If these DOE scientists don’t want to be re-directed to study different things, this is not an infringement of their scientific freedom. Instead, it is part of the price you pay for being the government’s scientist—just as in any other field of endeavor you do what is directed by the people who sign your paycheck.

Overall, I gotta say … it’s about time, and it couldn’t happen to a better agency,

The other links I provide above outline more of the upcoming leftwing/Democratic campaign. They are going to squeal like pigs, and they are going to do it like never before.

The fundamental question remains: What will Trump and Congress do in response? In 2010 the evidence suggested the Republicans would fold like a deck of cards. This proved true. Now, however, the Congress is even more conservative, and the new president is not a member of the Washington elite political class.

Donald Trump’s roots might still be that of a liberal Democrat, but he is also a tough businessman trained in the real world battles of private enterprise. His cabinet picks, favoring businessmen like himself, suggest that he means business. He will ignore the squeals and do what he thinks is right. While it is likely that I, as a free market conservative who wants the federal government to shrink, will not like many of his decisions, it does seem clear that in at least one area, climate research and regulation, Trump is moving in the right direction. He very clearly plans to cleanse the federal government of the environmental activism that has poisoned climate research for the past two decades.

If things go as indicated by his cabinet picks, Trump will move to shift climate research from NASA to NOAA, an action that will allow him to put new people in charge of the research. The change will also allow him to adjust budgets, cutting where he thinks necessary. At the same time he will move to reshape the EPA, and the Energy, Interior, and Commerce departments. The leftwing politcalization of these agencies will end, even if it means the firing of a lot of people.

If Trump moves to do this with courage, his leadership will stiffen the spines of the Republican wimps in Congress. We already have an indication of this: Mitch McConnell is getting ready to unravel Obama’s coal rules. The signs definitely suggest that Trump and Congress will at least initially show backbone and treat the squealing for what it is, a temper tantrum by spoiled three-year-olds who have gotten used to getting their way all the time.

Well, it is time that they no longer got their way. The federal government under the leadership of these three-year-olds has become an abject failure, bankrupting the country while squelching freedom. It is time someone else’s ideas were given a chance. To this, I say to Trump, “Go for it!”

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

10 comments

  • F16 Bill

    I see the political system as being broken. Those in power will do nothing to correct the path they are on. After all, they do need to be re-elected.

    The only way to fix Congress, et al, is from the outside. Mark Levin’s Liberty Amendments would be a great start, as would the FAIR TAX and other actions.

    All that said, little will change with Trump, no matter how hard he tries.

    The eleven amendments proposed by Levin:

    Impose Congressional term limits
    Repeal the Seventeenth Amendment, returning the election of Senators to state legislatures
    Impose term limits for Supreme Court Justices and restrict judicial review
    Require a balanced budget and limit federal spending and taxation
    Define a deadline to file taxes (one day before the next federal election)
    Subject federal departments and bureaucratic regulations to periodic reauthorization and review
    Create a more specific definition of the Commerce Clause
    Limit eminent domain powers
    Allow states to more easily amend the Constitution by bypassing Congress
    Create a process where two-thirds of the states can nullify federal laws
    Require photo ID to vote and limit early voting

  • wayne

    F16 Bill-
    Totally on board with Convention of States.

    http://www.conventionofstates.com/

  • Icepilot

    The ironic beauty of screaming pigs is that, by starting their incessant dirge on Nov 9, by Jan 20 it will all be just background noise. After a few months, the sky not having fallen, the majority of Americans will turn the noise off.

  • Cotour

    Related:

    A friend just sent me an email about a meeting she was at related to a major NYC hospital:

    “At our meeting, we are hearing from a Muslim advocate group, they are demanding that all crosses and religious symbols be REMOVED from the chapels. The audience was very upset. This group has said that it is against the law and they must clear out the symbols. It seems that one Muslim was offended. I can just see it now, in time, this space will become a Muslim prayer room. ”

    Trump is going to have a lot more on his plate besides NASA (I of course state the obvious).

  • Edward

    F16 Bill,
    I would like to see an amendment that forbids the government from directing us as to how to spend our own money, as the Supreme Court’s ruling on the ACA now allows so long as there is a tax associated with the directive.

    The Sixteenth Amendment is now being used against us just as the Commerce Clause has been abused to be used against us. Thus, rather than an amendment to create a new tax filing deadline, it may be better to merely repeal the Sixteenth Amendment.

  • wayne

    Edward–
    FYI–Changing “tax-day” will not require an Amendment, “April 15th” is a just legislative choice and can be changed easily. (If Mitch/Ryan agree.) ACA & Commerce-Clause type-cases, are addressed and could be overridden by the States acting collectively, within a 2 year window.
    Highly recommend this C-Span In-Depth interview:

    C-Span In Depth Interview:
    -Mark Levin: The Liberty Amendments
    1-5-14
    https://youtu.be/jRkxfpfeLEM
    (3:00:14)

  • wayne

    (or…. a shorter presentation…)
    Mark Levin Discusses Article V
    Reagan Library Event– December 2013
    https://youtu.be/cTz48FT7ByQ
    (1:09:02)

  • Steve Earle

    I agree with all of the steps outlined above. IMHO it is far past time to give WashDC an enema…

    However, doing that via a Constitutional Convention will take too much time. Time that will be used by the left to further cement their place at the trough, and their people in the bureaucracies…..

    “People are Policy”

    It may already be too late to clean house. Even if you get Term Limits and replace all of the Agency Heads, those agencies and departments all have thousands of Lois Lerners already in them. And you can bet your behind that the next Dem President will further fill the rolls with more Ideologues.

    You may eventually get your amendments, but by that time the Leftist Ideologues will have completely taken over the machinery of government (if they haven’t already) and rest assured they will find a way to co-opt the “new” rules.

    The time to stop the march to the Left is NOW. And the only way to do that is to drive a stake into the heart of the beast.

    We desperately need to move the ratchet back several notches. Abolish as many Goverment Agencies as possible. Kill them dead. Make sure the buildings are sold and the office equipment is taken to the dump. Terminate ALL of their employees. Any job they did that is deemed “essential” should be given to the States or to another Agency.

    Even if the size of the Federal Government was only rolled back to pre 9-11 levels it would be a victory.

    If Trump, Ryan, and McConnell fail to do this, all they have done is temporarily re-arrange the deck chairs on the sinking ship of state. :-(

  • wayne

    Steve– good stuff.

    We’re closer than you might think. We only need 34 State Legislatures and we have 20+ that have already passed Model legislation calling for a Convention.
    Trump is a reprieve at best but he won’t actually shrink the government.
    D.C. (& the 4 surrounding Counties,) will never voluntarily, fundamentally, shrink their influence, without being forced.
    It’s the last, legal, non-violent method. If they don’t comply, all bets would be off… and things would get medieval.

    (try the 11 minute version)
    Convention of States
    Mark Levin
    https://youtu.be/gQUE2SqKG8E
    (11:23)

  • Cotour

    It is written on the walls:

    http://www.theamericanmirror.com/15-minutes-up-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-plays-to-small-audience/

    The Democrat party is dying, not to reacquire power for another 10 to 20 years, maybe never if they refuse to re-Americanize their rhetoric and agenda.

Readers: the rules for commenting!

 

No registration is required. I welcome all opinions, even those that strongly criticize my commentary.

 

However, name-calling and obscenities will not be tolerated. First time offenders who are new to the site will be warned. Second time offenders or first time offenders who have been here awhile will be suspended for a week. After that, I will ban you. Period.

 

Note also that first time commenters as well as any comment with more than one link will be placed in moderation for my approval. Be patient, I will get to it.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *