Latest Stories
Most recently published stories in The Swamp.
Government Shutdown Actually Costs Money
This is an on going series of why you can't drain the swamp. What we immediately began to realize when we studied how Government works is it never is what it seems. The idyllic dream of getting everyone out of office so that a new group of responsible people could represent the taxpaying public has just taken another detour. Why work to get paid when you can just shut down and get paid more? Most people when they hear the Government has to shut down immediately think that both sides can't agree and so this inconvenience to the taxpaying public is a result of their incompetence. Quite the contrary. Sure it's an inconvenience to the taxpaying public but that is not all it is. It actually costs "more money" to run the government when its shut down then when its open (article). Did they hear "more money?" Why don't they just run it in a shutdown state all the time?So rather than being incompetent, the elected officials are actually exercising their competency. The problem all has to do with perception. The taxpaying public has the perception that these supposedly honorable people are exhibiting such moral high ground that they will become servants of the people for the greater good of society.Think about that for a second. Why would a well educated, highly intelligent, wealthy, and powerful person submit themselves to becoming a servant? Everything about what they have achieved to this point in their life and the people they chose to surround themselves with says just the opposite. They hire servants and pay them as little as possible. Do you think they are going to become a servant? Have they convinced you it's worth being a servant if you pay them enough? Have they convinced you the greater good is actually being served? Isn't the whole point of wanting to drain the swamp to get people like them out of there? If they were really serving you and had the greater good in mind wouldn't they stay as far away from that place as possible?Apparently, they have a swamp in Washington D.C. that needs draining they would like to sell you.So when the opportunity arises to join an elite group of people who are using group psychology to convince the taxpaying public they are their servants so they can amass the ultimate in wealth and power, why in the world would they suddenly jump ship and become a good Samaritan? Hint: They wouldn't!Rather isn't this the moment, they are in the zone and everything about who they are and what they are about is like a fine-tuned machine out to screw anyone and everyone and make themselves the ultimate beneficiary. The best part of all is all they have to do is take a few acting classes to make it appear they care. Certainly, at this point, they don't know how to do that by themselves anymore. So when everyone is counting on them to keep the government functioning, since it obviously won't function efficiently or effectively anymore, they step it up another notch. Working together to secretly achieve a government shutdown while running around blaming it on each other. This allows the seeming financial chaos to actually orchestrate even more funding for them to distribute to additional points they deem necessary. It's like legal euphoria!It makes you wonder why Hollywood doesn't give them the Oscar. The acting job being performed so well, by so many, for so long, puts to shame any basic movie that is produced out west. These guys and gals are in a league all their own. The best part of all is its always someone else's fault. We're already 20 trillion in debt and there is no end in sight to that. Even if they had a balanced budget and stopped deficit spending immediately, it will still take them more than a century to pay it off. That's three generations! Doesn't it just make you wonder what other nonsense they will think up next?
By Richard Van Steenberg8 years ago in The Swamp
Religious Allegiance
The relationship between American patriotism and dissent has a significant history of both overlapping coexistence and frank opposition, revealing a semi-consistent series of debates on the grounds of religion and politics that began during the American independence movement and continue to be debated to this day. The presidency of George W. Bush reestablished a sense of patriotism in American politics through religious foundational ideas after the 9/11 bombings, causing a reasonable amount of dissent among the non-Christian American population. Court cases calling to question the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, such as Everson v. New Jersey Board of Education, have a history of creating conflict between state governments and religious organizations.
By Josh Whitehead8 years ago in The Swamp
Scottish Tory MPs Vote For Their Careers Against Scotland
What Happened January 17, 2018 showed that Scottish Tory MPs, having huffed and puffed about preserving devolution, decided to vote for preserving their careers. Like good little lap dogs they voted with their mistress, against a Labour amendment that would have preserved devolution as it was defined in 1998. Had they voted the other way, the amendment would have passed. By doing so, they threatened the careers of their counterparts in the Scottish Parliament and made the murder of the Scottish Parliament much more likely.
By Axel P Kulit8 years ago in The Swamp
FISA Memo Reveals Corrupt Officials
After a long year of accusations and fraudulence and what is already old news to some, truth has surfaced and reached the Entirety of the House Of Representatives in Washington D.C on Thursday. A truth In the form of a four-page long FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) Memo, in which provides hard evidence into the abuse of power, intelligence weaponization and sinister political corruption of the FBI and DoJ (Department of Justice). In deceit with the Clinton Campaign, Fusion-GPS and Obama Administration, they funded and fabricated a fake Russian Dossier-a 17 page memo in which former M16 agent and head desk of Russian House Christopher Steele contributed to writing. This was then used to conspire against and blackmail president Trump and open the Robert Mueller investigation while illegally spying on him.
By Beautiful Surrender8 years ago in The Swamp
30 Curious and Obscure Words, Phrases, & Insults (Which Are Totally Not All About One Specific Tremendously Stable Genius). Top Story - January 2018.
Lexicography is a wonderful thing. The study of words and language, the strange and fascinating ways in which these words came to be, and how they have linguistically evolved over time, is a subject ripe for intellectual curiosity.
By Jack Anderson Keane8 years ago in The Swamp
Delisting of the Yellowstone Grizzly Bear Population From the Endangered Species List and the Trump Administration's Vital Mistake
In August of 2017, twin orphaned grizzly bears were admitted to the Riverside Discovery Center and Zoo in Scottsbluff, Nebraska by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The bears’ mother was illegally shot and killed by a black bear hunter in June. Wildlife officials thought that the two yearling brothers would survive on their own, but as they became used to using humans to feed them, they were captured and transported to the Riverside Discovery Center where they will serve as an educational experience for visitors from around the country. In July of 2017, the grizzly bears of Yellowstone National Park were delisted from the endangered species list that they had been protected by for 42 years. The species has been protected under the Endangered Species Act since 1975 and have grown back from fewer than 150 bears to an estimated 700 whom have led the US Fish and Wildlife Service to believe the population has met the requirements to be considered recovered. Recently, the Trump Administration has changed some of the requirements regarding animals listed as an Endangered Species. Nowadays, it appears that bears that wander away from protective boundaries such as National Parks can be hunted and killed. Although their numbers have improved, conservation groups such as The Humane Society and Native American tribes greatly oppose and are lining up to sue to stop the delisting since they believe that the bears need to continue to be protected under the Endangered Species Act as climate change has left the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem in uncertainty. The Center for Biological Diversity, the Sierra Club, the National Parks Conservation Association, and the Northern Cheyenne tribe filed a lawsuit in August challenging the US Fish and Wildlife Service's June Yellowstone grizzly delisting. By looking at the grizzly bears in Yellowstone National Park, one can see that delisting the grizzly bears from the Endangered Species list will be dangerous for the species itself due to hunting, climate change, and a lack of adequate food sources.
By Sierra Spears8 years ago in The Swamp
See You Later, President Obama
This past weekend, I followed the changing of our Nation’s leaders on YouTube. Barack Obama and family leaving the White House, while Trump and family moved into the White House. I watched sadly, as Obama waved and then turned to walk into the plane. I shed a few tears. Then I went out, and got a little drunk as well. He had made history. I had loved him as our President. I didn't feel as though it was just President Barack Obama, but First Lady Michelle Obama, a poised and beautiful black woman, who was intelligent and possessed a sense of humor, and their family, had represented our country perfectly.
By Lady Sunday8 years ago in The Swamp
Carillion’s Collapse – What Does It Mean?
So, it has happened – a lot quicker than I thought it would. Although I should really have been keeping abreast of the news, I didn't actually hear last year's profit warnings or know that Carillion had been awarded a contract by Chris Grayling for HS2 in what turned out to be their dying days. Because of this, I didn't know that they were in trouble, and so their collapse did come as a surprise to me – apparently many other people saw it coming. In the end, the UK government decided not to bail them out, resulting in Carillion's liquidation. I hope that this was for sound economic reasons, rather than purely ideological ones, although we may never know as what matters now is the consequences. No point poring over what might have been; there's quite enough to put right whatever decision they might have reached. It is worth exploring the type of work that Carillion was employed for: this will allow us to see just how many pieces there are to pick up.
By Katy Preen8 years ago in The Swamp
Famous Political Scandals of the 1970s
With such controversies as Monica Lewinsky, Benghazi, and John McCain's inclusion among the "Keating Five," we come upon a slippery slope in American self-interests when realizing that America isn't the best place in the world. Suffice it to say, America has had more internal issues than most other countries, besides the UK or Russia, for that matter. Over the past 50 years, in themselves, have shown a good quantity of sex scandals, money laundering, and plain old political tyranny, most of which we might have never know even existed.
By Donald Gray8 years ago in The Swamp
