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Government Tag

Last month, Yahoo News ripped the lid off of a government surveillance program run by a division of the USPS. The program monitors, scans, and collects information on social media postings considered "inflammatory" enough to pass along to other government agencies. It includes posts promoting the coordination and planning of upcoming political demonstrations.

I first heard of Critical Race Theory back in 2012 from Andrew Breitbart, and like all decent, law-abiding, fair-minded, non-racist Americans, I was appalled by it.  As Breitbart warned at the time, this then-radical Marxism-based divisive, destructive theory is being mainstreamed.  It has moved out of our universities and into our culture, society, and even our government.

Friday, Trump signed three executive orders tackling civil service reform. The bloated bureaucracy is fatally toxic, but any talk of civil service reform is always met with vitriol and apocalyptic prognostication.

Trump's election has brought out the worst in half of the country. We've chronicled much of it. Rather than accepting Trump as president, we've seen attempt after attempt to delegitimize the Trump presidency and the undermining of each and every policy initiative. I've long said that all the minutia aside, the fundamental difference between the American left and the American right is the belief in the proper role of government in the lives of individuals.

A group of academics has published an article in the socialist publication Jacobin in which they advocate for a "federal job guarantee."  This proposal entails a guaranteed minimal income of $23,000 per year and "rising to a mean of $32,500" to people who do not have jobs.  This money would come, of course, from tax payers who do have jobs, most of whom can ill-afford the tax burden this "spread the wealth" scheme entails. This idea has been batted around by socialists (and communists) for decades and is again rearing its ugly head.

According to a recent Gallup poll, D. C. gridlock and "do nothing Congress" accusations seem to have taken its toll on Americans' preference for divided government.  Just 20% of Americans now prefer the presidency and Congress to be controlled by different parties...the lowest it's been in 15 years. Gallup reports:
One in five Americans believe it is best for the president to be from one political party and for Congress to be controlled by another, the lowest level of public support for divided government in Gallup's 15-year trend. The remainder are evenly divided between those who favor one party controlling both the presidency and Congress (36%) and those saying it makes no difference how political power is allocated (36%). Americans' current preference for one party controlling both the presidency and Congress is near the record high of 38% from four years ago. That fits with a pattern of heightened support for single-party control seen in the past two presidential election years. In 2004, the preferences were more evenly divided. These results are based on Gallup's annual Governance poll, conducted Sept. 7-11.

According to a report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of local, state, and federal government workers in the U. S. exceeds the number of those working in the manufacturing sector by almost 10 million. CNS reports:
Government employees in the United States outnumber manufacturing employees by 9,932,000, according to data released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Federal, state and local government employed 22,213,000 people in August, while the manufacturing sector employed 12,281,000.

One of the more disturbing popular political theories is the notion that Congress Must Do Something!™ Not only is reactionary governance unwise, it also runs contrary to the founders' intentions. Our government was designed specifically to mitigate the hair ablaze reactivity that inevitably leads to horrible policy and infringement of rights. Progressives typically carry the reactionary banner though no segment of the political spectrum is immune. Everyone wants change and looks to the government and by extension, their elected officials, to give them what they want. Often our elected officials are the worst offenders of this politically driven extra-Constitutional reactivity. Rather than work within the confines of our Constitutional framework, Democrats (who here, are worse than their Republican counterparts) routinely look to skirt boundaries to achieve short-term political gains.

Last fall, Kemberlee Kaye reported on the continued incompetence of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and suggested that a smart presidential candidate should add become a “strong proponent of defunding the TSA.” Now, as one party has a presumptive nominee and the other is still fighting over the matter, it turns out that things have already changed at the TSA! Changed as in gotten far, far worse, as airlines report that some 4,000 passengers have missed flights at O’Hare Airport because of the long wait times since February, and there have been reports of screening hold-ups, delayed baggage transport, and difficulties at many other airports.

The untimely death of music icon Prince underscores the importance of never taking a day for granted. The cause of his demise at the relatively young age of 57 is still the source of much speculation. Reports indicate that hip injuries sustained during his dynamic performances led to an addiction to pain killers, which he was preparing to address.
The 57-year-old “Purple Rain” singer knew he was hooked on Percocet before his death, possibly of an overdose, last week — so he entered an out-patient treatment program, the Minneapolis station KSTP 5 Eyewitness News reported. The superstar attended the unnamed rehab center to move away from using medication prescribed for his severe hip pain, according to the station.He scored the opioid pills from multiple doctors, including “a personal friend,” TMZ reported.

We've been featuring Prager University videos at College Insurrection for years now and we figured it was about time we showcased them here at Legal Insurrection once in a while. Dennis Prager has done an outstanding job with his online university and affiliated videos which cover everything from government issues to social policy and beyond. The videos are hosted by figures from politics, media, business, the arts and education. In this new offering, historian and Hillsdale College professor Burt Folsom explores the difference between innovations funded by private investment and government investment.