Is there anyone here who actually thinks the feds give a chit about any of us???

I don’t expect them to care for me - ursidman, the individual- I pay a doctor, talk to my lawyer, and broker, hang out with family and friends who do care about meNot the government’s job to do so. It is their job to enact legislation that will benefit the country, the state, or county as a whole or specific segments that need it and to keep it fair and support American ideals and values.

 

What is a fed?

 

Dad's lookin for company. Maybe growing up in 'is old age.

 

you rang?

 

Government employees are most concerned about keeping their jobs. They mostly care about themselves, like everyone else. We elect them to represent us and make the laws to govern us. If you want to blame someone because they aren't doing their jobs very well, blame the voters. Americans have been dumbed down (and ratcheted up emotionally) so much by television, movies and the internet that an unattractive candidate (or a dull problem-solver) cannot possibly be elected to high office. Abraham Lincoln, our greatest president, would be unelectable today. And the candidate does not have to be very smart either. If he can say that he "knows big words" with absolute certainty, we'll believe him. The main attribute a candidate needs to have is the ability to insult the other candidates in a 30-second sound bite. Our attention span has been reduced by the dumbing down process to about 30 seconds. If you could combine the insults of Don Rickles with the looks and voice of young Robert Redford, a candidate could not lose.

Americans are a very shallow people, poorly educated and prone to tribalism, which is another problem with elections. For most Americans, their ideal candidate needs to fight the opposition harder than the opposition is fighting them. The enemy is not the Russians, the Chinese, or even the problems that we face (Global Warming, water shortages, energy isues, crime, etc.). The enemy is some guy with a different idea on how to solve the problems. Your candidate cannot cooperate with the other team. You would rather see the country fail before you see the other side succeed. And this is why America is failing. The 5% of Americans who can think for themselves are easily outvoted by the 95% who cannot.

We're about half way to spraying crops with Gatorade.

 

There’s really no point in acting as tho “the feds” are one entity that act and think as one.
Every occupation has a wide variety of people in it

 

Everything being relative I think the "feds" give a chit about us much more than the deluded former president with the orange complexion who cares about the American people only insofar as they can provide him with adoration and as targets for his grifting.

Waiting for responses "whataboutism" and "TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome) is real".

 

I feel badly for the ones who understand this. They are the only ones who don't deserve what is coming, but they're going to get it, too.

 

I don’t understand the question

 

The "fed" boogeyman narrative. Nice.

 

Think Trump cultist.

 

Another purposeless thread.

You may eclipse DiMaggio’s streak yet.

 

The Federal Reserve? I dunno.
I sure don’t trust many politicians on either side. They will not consider term limits. It’s curious how their wealth grows exponentially while in DC; their salary is good but not that good. I’m pretty sure I recall Biden’s net worth just a few years ago was not so much, modest if I recall. Now, he has a beach house and a $500,000 fence around it. Liz Cheney’s net worth has grown many fold in just several years. Pelosi too. The optics look bad. No, I’d say most don’t give two craps about us.

 

Their income is relatively low to be living in an expensive city like D.C. and have security concerns. Congressmen make $175k. Influential members of Congress can make additional money from "speaking fees", which is often a way of buying influence (read: bribery) with the legislator. Hillary made over $100k per hour "speaking fees" from numerous corporations as a Senator and Sec'y of State because she was considered a shoe-in for the presidency and was known to be shady and unethical (read: you will be paid back for your bribe). And once you get to the upper echelons of politics, you can run a semi-legitimate charity that can be both used to attract bribes to access the politician, as well as a slush fund for your political interests (such as donations to convention Super-Delegates). All completely unethical and yet somehow completely legal. Some politicians had money before they went into politics (or made money separate from politics, like Romney), and some did well with investments, so not all politicians are completely crooked.

The U.S. desperately needs another ABSCAM-type operation to clean house (and the Senate, too). Hopefully, we would have prosecutors and judges willing to convict, but just being accused of bribery (with evidence) might make some of them unelectable. Once you wipe out a fairly high percentage of Congress, you might be able to get the remaining members of Congress (plus new Congress members) to agree to some version of term limits. They will suddenly be very eager to prove their integrity to disassociate from the criminals of Congress. We might even get some laws enacted regarding things like speaking fees and semi-legitimate charities.

I actually don't think we need to go to the extreme of hard-stop term limits. I would say that members of Congress should only serve in one House for 12 consecutive years. The best legislators would be able to switch houses every 12 years and continue to contribute at a high level. It would shake things up periodically with regard to committee assignments and other responsibilities. Once you've worked in the Senate, the House probably seems like a zoo, so many Senators would just take a few years off and run again when the next Senate position comes open for their state. And that's fine. This way of doing things would allow for some continuity of the best legislators, and still prevent the easy path that incumbents have toward re-election.

 

Really excellent points! Well done!
I do think there should be some fair means of “retiring” congresspeople (can I say that?) that show obvious signs of mental decline, cognitive loss, etc. That’s what is done in private business and is called early retirement. Is it always fair? Probably not. But there have been a few congresspeople who will not leave before they die. I believe Biden should take a cognitive test but it’s not going to happen. I doubt he could pass it unless he was given unlimited time to provide answers. Maybe they are concerned his replacement would be worse!

 

Well, they damn sure care about you paying taxes but other than that, no.

 

The older Congressmen are not always the problem (except for the area of corruption from corporate campaign donations), unless they are in leadership positions that they are not qualified for or suited to (like Pelosi). The younger Congressmen are usually the worst, like Matt Gaetz and Madison Cawthorn. They have self-serving agendas that have nothing to do with improving the country, and being elected to Congress only feeds their massive egos. Occasionally, they step over the line and get caught doing something that makes them un-electable, but the people that voted them in are a fairly committed bunch.