Thank you Divine Providence for the rational counter-posts in this thread.

quote:

Divine Providence

That was one of their code names, I read.

quote:

Originally posted by 46and2:
I think it's a mix of regular old Wasteful Bureaucracy and some Political Grandstanding to further fuel the Us vs Them, Left vs Right, narrative, and it appears to be working famously.

I hope to be proven wrong about this one day, I truly do, but I wouldn't bet those odds.

Who knows, maybe Tater is right... maybe the Weatherman of old are spinning up sleeper cells nationwide as we speak. Beatniks and hippies and teachers are sharpening their letter openers, taking trips to Cuba via San Juan to train with AKs and RPGs, all to stop evil Betsy.

Yeah, that's it. The same Commies who surely would have done just about anything to prevent a Trump victory, but didn't, will mobilize info action and (snicker) take out the Secretary of Education, because she's cutting some teaching jobs and funding. Yessiree.

Anyway, thanks for the amusing discussion.

In your outrage you might have missed the anthrax that was mailed to several politicians as well as the pipe bombs. Also the baseball game attack. It is fairly obvious that a threat exists although I suppose one could argue that the response is extreme it is nonsense to simply ignore it as political grandstanding.

quote:

Originally posted by TSE:
Well it wouldn't be necessary if Antifa and the other crazy leftards would stop threatening and harassing everyone they consider to be an evil Nazi. Perhaps they could use the vote to express their opinion?

This.

It might take more than $20 Million a year, depending on how much criminal harrassment elected Democrats and their Antifa/BLM buddies can incite.

Cost of doing business.

quote:

Originally posted by TSE:

quote:

Originally posted by 46and2:
I think it's a mix of regular old Wasteful Bureaucracy and some Political Grandstanding to further fuel the Us vs Them, Left vs Right, narrative, and it appears to be working famously.

I hope to be proven wrong about this one day, I truly do, but I wouldn't bet those odds.

Who knows, maybe Tater is right... maybe the Weatherman of old are spinning up sleeper cells nationwide as we speak. Beatniks and hippies and teachers are sharpening their letter openers, taking trips to Cuba via San Juan to train with AKs and RPGs, all to stop evil Betsy.

Yeah, that's it. The same Commies who surely would have done just about anything to prevent a Trump victory, but didn't, will mobilize info action and (snicker) take out the Secretary of Education, because she's cutting some teaching jobs and funding. Yessiree.

Anyway, thanks for the amusing discussion.

In your outrage you might have missed the anthrax that was mailed to several politicians as well as the pipe bombs. Also the baseball game attack. It is fairly obvious that a threat exists although I suppose one could argue that the response is extreme it is nonsense to simply ignore it as political grandstanding.

How, exactly, would $22,000/day of personal security do anything at all about anthrax packages? It wouldn't. We already have systems in place for that. And the softball game was, again, a single random attack not aimed at any specific individual. Both wholly unrelated to the need for 24/7 body guards and the like.

The carefree nature with which everyone is fine with this is astonishing.

So it's a serous threat, supposedly, yet a nebulous one just the same. It's so real and so specific that 24/7 coverage is necessary, yet so ambiguous that it continues on and on, year after year, without anyone apprehending any bad guys. So there are these really bad people, supposedly, who are after her, yet they never get caught, nor never attack her.

If the threat is that serious, shouldn't we all know? Are they so patient and so sophisticated that they can elude the resources of the most powerful nation in the world? That sounds pretty serious. Yet it's so specific that they're only targeting one Cabinet Member? The Secretary of Education? Not a lick of this passes the bullshit sniff test.

Utterly wasteful nonsense.

Imagine you were the Secretary of Education, and you had to convince the powers that be that you needed 24/7 protection of this scale... What in the world would you say that would conceivably sound convincing? Some people Tweeted mean things? Some kook in Peoria made a mean sounding post on Facebook? Arrest the kook, then. What takes years?

Most posts in this thread are by people who simply seem bothered that I'm criticizing someone on "our team" or because they like that she wants to cut the Dept of Education.

No shit, we all want to cut the Department of (mis)Education. None of which is the point. And waste is waste, whether it's our side or not.

quote:

Originally posted by 46and2:
You're right, it's not $20 Million a year, more like an average of $8 Million a year. By Grabthar's hammer, wow what a savings. I mean, that's *only* ~$22,000/day to protect her.

No big deal, eh? A nearly useless privileged bureaucrat in a nearly useless position. I ask again... what, precisely, or hell - even theoretically, does she do to warrant this expense?

How does 20/3 equal 8?

It’s clear you aren’t really interested in any discussion. You haven’t changed the title of the thread and you are making up numbers.

I wouldn’t classify my feelings on this as carefree. But getting all wound up about it is just as stupid. All I can do about wasteful spending is continue to campaign and vote for people who I think will best represent my interests. Also I know the swamp can’t be drained in a day and that there are far more pressing issues facing this country than the security detail of a cabinet member.

She needs a detail, the AntiFa and democrat loonies would like noting more than to kill her for a myriad of reasons. Would you rather that a cabinet member be executed? Do you think that wouldn't shake the foundation of our government.

I used government/police math, of course.

quote:

Originally posted by 46and2:
The carefree nature with which everyone is fine with this is astonishing.

So it's a serous threat, supposedly, yet a nebulous one just the same. It's so real and so specific that 24/7 coverage is necessary, yet so ambiguous that it continues on and on, year after year, without anyone apprehending any bad guys. So there are these really bad people, supposedly, who are after her, yet they never get caught, nor never attack her.

If the threat is that serious, shouldn't we all know? Are they so patient and so sophisticated that they can elude the resources of the most powerful nation in the world? That sounds pretty serious. Yet it's so specific that they're only targeting one Cabinet Member? The Secretary of Education? Not a lick of this passes the bullshit sniff test.

Utterly wasteful nonsense.

Imagine you were the Secretary of Education, and you had to convince the powers that be that you needed 24/7 protection of this scale... What in the world would you say that would conceivably sound convincing? Some people Tweeted mean things? Some kook in Peoria made a mean sounding post on Facebook? Arrest the kook, then. What takes years?

Most posts in this thread are by people who simply seem bothered that I'm criticizing someone on "our team" or because they like that she wants to cut the Dept of Education.

No shit, we all want to cut the Department of (mis)Education. None of which is the point. And waste is waste, whether it's our side or not.

Are you seriously alive, or able to use any of your senses? She has more power over the leftist base than you're giving her credit for. The left came unglued and out of the woodwork to derail her nomination. The leftists in my city came in hordes to comment on local websites, some of the most vile things I've ever seen written about a person. The leftist faculty at her alma mater (a small conservative christian college in Grand Rapids, MI) as well as alumni, posted an open letter smearing her in some seriously deranged ways. They came after her with a shit storm that was completely ficticious.

Remember that?

Did anyone not see the video of grown adults, some of which who had children, spitting her and cursing her to the point that she was ushered out of the building. The sitting SecEd. At a public school.

Remember that?

Do you have any idea what the leftists currently have invested in our schools and the way they shape young minds? Have you been dead or asleep for the last 30 years? They're out for blood because they need the schools to keep churning out their idiotic masses. Heaven forbid students be allowed to think for themselves, or even choose a path that doesn't include their precious 4-year colleges.

I mean goddamn it's so amazing how clueless people are to the amount of money involved in higher education. Shit. Even 2ndary education has MILLIONS at stake for the unions and their goons. Have you even read a single word of what they tried to do to Mars Attacks?

Your attempted humor about the threats on Betsy DeVos's life are tonedeaf and assinine.

Goddamn.

I have to agree that this is 46and2's most brain dead series of posts in all of his years here. Cut your weed use in half as you're not thinking clearly.

The swamp that is education is perhaps the widest of any swamp as it expands to the state capitols of each and every state. The leftists/progressives/socialists are just new words for communists and she scares the shit out of them. They're so unhinged when it comes to her nomination and as well as every business trip she takes because they're afraid she'll make great strides into undoing the 2 generations of success they've had in the schools. They know enough inside information about her personal life (likely government employees illegally using their Lexus Nexus access on government owned computers) that they have committed vandalization on her family's yacht when they cut it free from the dock and it was damaged when it floated free for an entire night.

Additionally, you can throw red herrings out such as Weatherman sleeper cells but the fact is that communists already have their violent useful idiots in AntiFA and Black Lies Matter. If she starts making enough progress they'll do more than just slow walk policies, yell at her, spit on her, and vandalize her property.

quote:

Originally posted by 46and2:

quote:

Originally posted by TSE:

quote:

Originally posted by 46and2:
I think it's a mix of regular old Wasteful Bureaucracy and some Political Grandstanding to further fuel the Us vs Them, Left vs Right, narrative, and it appears to be working famously.

I hope to be proven wrong about this one day, I truly do, but I wouldn't bet those odds.

Who knows, maybe Tater is right... maybe the Weatherman of old are spinning up sleeper cells nationwide as we speak. Beatniks and hippies and teachers are sharpening their letter openers, taking trips to Cuba via San Juan to train with AKs and RPGs, all to stop evil Betsy.

Yeah, that's it. The same Commies who surely would have done just about anything to prevent a Trump victory, but didn't, will mobilize info action and (snicker) take out the Secretary of Education, because she's cutting some teaching jobs and funding. Yessiree.

Anyway, thanks for the amusing discussion.

In your outrage you might have missed the anthrax that was mailed to several politicians as well as the pipe bombs. Also the baseball game attack. It is fairly obvious that a threat exists although I suppose one could argue that the response is extreme it is nonsense to simply ignore it as political grandstanding.

How, exactly, would $22,000/day of personal security do anything at all about anthrax packages? It wouldn't. We already have systems in place for that. And the softball game was, again, a single random attack not aimed at any specific individual. Both wholly unrelated to the need for 24/7 body guards and the like.

You are really trying to be obtuse. You post that there is no real threat. Then when it is pointed out that a threat exists you claim that the security provided is not tailored to that specific threat. First of all my point was that a general threat does exist. Secondly I doubt you have any idea whether the security costs mentioned include mail screenings. And finally the shooting was not directed at an individual but individuals having personal protection details would obviously be able to deal with generalized threats.
In any event the threat exists whether you can comprehend it or not.

Why security?

Because this isn't freakin' Colombia, and unlike Colombia, we don't let people express their political rage by threatening, assaulting, or killing our Cabinet-level appointees.

Cabinet officials aren't just individuals any more, they're institutions and symbols. They're a small population (15) and as opposed as I am to waste and inefficiency in .gov, I'm actually good with this.

I think some of us may be short sighted on this.
Is that kind of money ridiculous for her security? = of course
Is the D O E a huge flaming pile of poop? = of course

But while we have a DOE this woman is very important. The left HATES her.

The lefts control of the media is almost complete.
The lefts control of public education has been complete until Trump.

The left needs control of public education to indoctrinate young, forming minds. How else can people go along with everything the left believes that goes against all reason and logic unless they are indoctrinated at an early age. Do you think it is an accident that they dont teach factual American history in school any more. How do you think young people think that socialism can turn our society into Utopia? It is of course because they dont know history, and that is no accident.

The left has been killing our country in the classroom. Trump and Devos are a threat to their domination of education. I would argue that Secretary of Education is an very important position. At least until the day we can get into a position to abolish it. Im not holding my breath...

I'll have to wait until the morning to read all of the recent responses, but I'll read them all.

Rest assured. I'm neither crazy nor high, even if we disagree.

Frankly. I'm a bit surprised by these reactions.

More tomorrow.

quote:

Originally posted by 46and2:
I'll have to wait until the morning to read all of the recent responses, but I'll read them all.

Rest assured. I'm neither crazy nor high, even if we disagree.

Frankly. I'm a bit surprised by these reactions.

More tomorrow.

Well, that's not any assurance. We were hoping you were high.
Have a good night.