Open Thread - 06-26-26 - Come On Up to the House
Submitted by JtC on Fri, 06/26/2026 - 7:54am
For the sake of brevity I'll condense the 1000 word screed I had in mind down to a few succinct thoughts.
- Has the federal government grown to be too powerful? In my humble opinion, the power out of Washington has become a leviathan that's out of control, both here at home and across the world. Would we be better off with decentralized governance, giving the power back to the states?
- Is the balance of power between the three branches of government out of whack? Forget the do-nothing houses of congress, they're worthless in my book. Has the prolific use of executive orders given the president too much power? If so, what about the judicial branch overturning just about everything the president proposes? The three branches were meant to be co-equal with separation of powers, were they not? Is this form of governance the new normal?
- Can you name a president that left the country in better shape than it was before he took office?
"Come down off the cross, we can use the wood" - That's got to be one of the best lyrics ever.
Comments
Good morning Free Rangers...
The psychopaths fight tooth and nail to reach the pinnacle of power, pimping for the money and power hungry hidden hands behind the scenes, while We the People don't even get a reach around.
Their plans wont work...
the trust is gone.
Do not comply.
Or, as the Libertarian/Anarchist quote
goes, "Become ungovernable". We are rapidly arriving upon those sunny shores...
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
Or, as the great Oglala Lakota Chief...
Crazy Horse quote goes: Hoka Hey!
Carter at least tried
to leave the place better off than when he found it - did try for economic fairness, worked to heal societal divisions from Vietnam, tried to rein in intelligence agency abuse, did his best to balance the budget...
For leaving the country in definitively better shape, Calvin Coolidge seems like a strong contender - supported women's suffrage, granted US citizenship to Indians, had strong support of black voters, opposed - though not very actively - Prohibition, reduced by 2 million the number of people paying federal income tax - taxing only the wealthiest 2% but also managing to reduce the federal debt by 25%...
Not all positive, of course, but compares pretty favorably with most of the competition...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvin_Coolidge
- Good to see you back in black, JtC.
Thanks BR...
I'm still struggling to get back in the groove.
Having to go through the mental gymnastics to come up with an executive that left the country in better shape than when he entered office highlights the slow descent downwards the US has made over the decades, does it not?
I guess that's the point I was trying to make, which is even more pronounced when the names Carter and Coolidge come up as two that come to mind in a long procession of presidents to pick from.
Thanks for chiming in.
Good morning...
I've been saying we are a post-constitutional nation. Laws don't matter. Both parties are owned and controlled by the Epstein class. War is our business model. Seem kinda hopeless to me. I see no way to right the ship of state. I continue to think if there is hope it will come with the pain of economic collapse (1929 style). But even then the oligarchs will sail through. It is checkmate for us little people, my friend.
Doesn't mean life has to be miserable. We need to step outside the system and build local community...at least to my mind. You remember the old saying, Think global act local? After all the hope is in the East... as the joke goes, "we are the badies".
Hope all is well. Thanks for the OT!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Guten morgen...
I think there is hope. When the collapse happens, and it will happen, and they try the final coup de grâce, the financial reset into stable coins or a CBDC, don't comply. If enough people refuse to play along their plan wont work. I have serious doubts it will work anyway.
You're second paragraph is spot on. We will need community to survive.
All is well here in the piney woods, hope all is well in the holler.
Lincoln?
I know. Crazy notion. And he didn't exactly leave office but was killed. And the disaster of the Civil War was unspeakable. So it doesn't make much sense to suggest he left the country in better shape. But the endless struggle over slavery ended, to the extent that it ended.
In my opinion, this is the struggle we are still fighting over, labor rights, from Russia to Palestine to Venezuela to California, the right to be paid a living wage.
Good morning, Linda...
I thought the same about Lincoln. Sure, he ended slavery, but reconstruction, a direct result from ending it, became the norm for many decades and just redefined slavery itself.
He basically ended states rights as well and started the federal government on the road to the behemoth it is today.
Unfortunately the struggle for labor rights has been with us from the day hunter-gatherers stepped out of the forest and into the village. Labor unions fought back and made some head way for a few decades but slowly and surely the camel got its nose back in the tent and the cycle goes on.
Great to hear from you today.
Good morning Johnny. I'd say that it is very arguable that
Jefferson left the country better off because he pulled off the Louisiana Purchase, grabbing about 1/3 of the current contiguous land area. Per da wiki, it included at least some part of the following states: Arkansas
Iowa
Missouri
Kansas
Oklahoma
Nebraska
Minnesota
Louisiana
New Mexico
Texas
North Dakota
South Dakota
Wyoming
Montana
Colorado
As to the first two items, yes, the federal government is way too powerful and yes, the balance of power is way out of whack.
Thanks for the column and good to see you at it again.
be well and have a good opne
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
That's a pretty good pick...
but I find it very telling in how difficult it is to pick one out. Maybe if they would remember who they're supposed to work for and the oath of office that they swear to things would work out better for their constituents.
But hey, one can dream, right?
Hoka Hey!
Hey and Hoka Hey and another good morning to ya.
Obscenely busy yestidday, but made it through to this morning, so here we are again. It is indeed telling how very difficult it is to come up with a President who left the country in better shape that it was in when he came to office, but also in that such a determination requires that one take the good with the bad and pick somebody who, overall, appears to have been a net positive after somehow subtracting the bad from the good which requires assigning values to things. Lessee, he did x, which was good and maybe worth a 7 on the good side of the ledger but also y which was bad, but maybe only a 4 to the bad, for a net 3 good. Fiddle the valuations a bit and it could easily go the other way. Good old nice guy "do no harm" Carter, for example, did, in fact get us into and eventually precipitate Afghanistan, though not so much during his own time in office. How do we mark that and how much weight do we give it.
As to the rest, the Constitution has some serious flaws, but the current workings of government largely override and ignore substantial bits and pieces thereof, which makes things far worse and, once power is seized or ceded, it is a real uphill battle to try to take anything back or return to the way things were. I could write volumes on this, but we must always keep in mind that democracy was never intended and was feared by those who created our model of population management.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
The government functions like it's 1799.
That spells failure in the 21st century.
The current US trajectory has already been launched by the inexperienced and under-educated amateurs elected to office — without merit, expertise, or qualifications.
But we all know how we got here. I think your questions are important and hopeful — as if we actually have an opportunity for a do-over.
Federal Government too powerful?
The states are fine, but the current Federal Government is rogue and must be totally re-designed in order to serve and benefit the people. Qualifications and expertise for elected officials should be established. The people deserve that, at the very least. What we do not need is ideology. Ideologies are cheat-sheets for the dumb and the inexperienced. Central governments can be strong, without being evil. There are no "united" states without a strong central government. The Federal government should be a meritocracy that answers directly to the people. At the moment, it's a gambling casino filled with nincompoops.
Balance of power dysfunctional?
Yes, but that can be corrected and enforced with a new constitution. The current constitution is entrenched and can no longer be amended. Once the US becomes a Failed State, a new constitution is inevitable.
Can you name a president that left the country in better shape than it was before he took office?
I do not believe a president is in office long enough to bring good changes to fruition. The US has a forced change of government every four or eight years, and everything goes out the window. The new government and the new President spend most of their time undermining whatever the prior government has done. Until the US government starts making long-term plans, with milestones and deadlines, it cannot accomplish anything meaningful.
Thanks for weighing in P...
excellent expansions on my assertions. I agree with it al except one little addition to this:
That's a two way street. A president may not be in office long enough to bring good changes during the four or eight years they may have. But that four or eight year limitation may also ameliorate the damage a really bad or dangerous president may inflict on the country.
Really glad to hear your view on things, my old friend.
Good morning Pluto. I beg to didder as to one bit:
Sadly, IMHO, not enough. Time and time again one party, while out of office will loudly decry a shitload of stuff the one in power does, but when back in power will let almost all of it not only stand, but will act on it and add to it. The GOP as a bit more pro-active than the Dems in this behavior, Parties also do not correct stupid or unethical shit that they themselves have done. Of one law championed by HRC, HRC later, when running for President claimed "It was a mistake", but, never before that moment made any such admission and never made any attempt, while still a legislator, or even simply as a citizen with the public and congressional ear, made any attempt to repeal or alter it.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
That's an important point.
That's how we ended up with Trump's delusional foreign policy of tariffs and sanctions from his first term — which was carried over to Biden's first term, that followed. And then continued to Trump's second term.
Of course, in this instance, I chalked it up to the Neocon-Zionist control over the Federal government — ushered in when the Americans People elected two seriously Brain-Damaged Presidents in a row. The Neocon's greatest achievement was getting Trump to tear up Obama's JCPOA agreement with Iran, paving the way to the war that Trump just lost.
(We're not rid of our rogue Neocon government, not by a long shot. It's the one constant in Washington DC, which has "guided" the US through the first quarter of the 21st century.)
Something's got to give.
Term limits are because of FDR
He was elected FOUR times, and is a possible candidate for "left the country better than he found it" after you weigh out all the positives and negatives (anyone on Social Security owes him bigtime).
FDR really shouldn't have run that fourth time (and survived inauguration by only a few months), so Congress proposed and the states ratified the 22nd Amendment (does anyone besides me suspect the Business Plotters were lobbying heavily for this result?).
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
The Supreme Court sided with
Trump's gang and Haitians and Syrians no longer have asylum protections and will be swiftly deported. The Left is upset, as expected. But who else is pissed? Nursing Home and factory owners because they need workers. We have no US citizens job hunting? Who knew?
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
If I remember right...
early on in the immigration debate, Trump excluded hotel works and farm workers from the re-imigration push. Hotel workers you say? Hmmm, wonder why? Heh.
The big excuse for corporate usage of immigrant labor is "Americans don't want those jobs". That may have been true back when jobs were more plentiful, but this is a new day and having a job, no matter how menial, is the difference between having a roof over head and food on the table.
But, we're locked into the corporate lobby/political grift/immigrant worker endless loop that keeps wages low so the CEOs can buy that second yacht.
Second yacht? Are you kidding? Try 3rd or 4th or some
other polluting monstrosity that’s called a giant yacht, but is actually the size of one of those floating hotels aka cruise ships. As to the POTUS question, not an easy one. We’ve had plenty of human garbage in that position, but there are exceptions.
As to the size of the federal government, and the checks and balances of the 3 branches, I will refer you to the “The Powell Memorandum.” That’s the craporate fascist blueprint which became public 55 years ago. Quicker and easier read than Project 2025. Hola, otc! It is good seeing you on here, JtC. I got some unexpected bad news. A very dear pal’s husband is being treated for the big curse aka cancer. Sigh… I know none of us live forever, but man am I sick of cancer!! He is undergoing treatment now, and I have fingers x’ed, it will lead to remission. Hope you both are staying cool and dry. It is hot and muggy here in ECFL. Rec’d!!
Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.
Hola, obf!
A woman hired me over 30 yrs ago to help her son set his juvenile record into the sealed records where it is supposed to be, as per statute.
Her son called me a few days ago to ask about a will for her. She has throat, lung, and kidney cancer all at once, refuses chemo and radiation and surgery. She is convinced traditional cancer treatment killed her late husband. Who knows? She might be right.
Try to stay cool under the heat dome!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Good morning obf...
sorry to hear about your pal's hubby. His chances of remission depends on a few things, namely, what type of cancer, what stage it's in, and his overall health. There are many other factors but those are the big ones.
The thoughts I'll send out to him are; stay strong and confident, brother.
Hot and muggy here as well, but I'll take that over cold and snowy any day of the week (I'm from North Central Illinois).
Hey JtC, good to see back to the keyboard.
Sarah Jarosz is one of our favorites. And I love that song. Chris Thile and Bela Fleck, oh so many great players. Thanks for the tune.
A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit. Allegedly Greek, but more possibly fairly modern quote.
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Hiya Dawn...
and with a big shout out to Tom Waits.
Thanks for stopping in, mon ami.