This is my second post on Romanian politics, the first being more historical, and this one ends in the current time. It is a bit long as was the previous, but I felt it necessary to establish some context.
In the previous post I tried to establish the general conditions of Romania by the 20th century. A mostly rural country with poor peasants, a small urban class, and a mostly corrupt and factional ruling elite who nevertheless did try to modernize things, though more often than not failed. With modernity came an increase of the administrative state, and with this government jobs. In a poor country where most people did not have great ambition, what was basically a government sinecure was the height of aspiration. In the early 1800 the principalities had less than ten thousand people on the government administration payroll. This swelled to over 100 thousand in 1900. The jobs were not paid a great deal, but in a country with mostly peasants and a barter economy, any salary was good. The pay was steady, the work not hard, the responsibility low. Most of the jobs were based on patronage, you needed to know someone to get you in, and you would owe that person. But as the urban population somewhat grew, so did the demand for such jobs. Today there are 1.45 million government employees, in a country with a permanent population of barely 16 million, and still many agencies, especially outside Bucharest, are family affairs and jobs are sinecures based on patronage. Such is the way of the world. Except that, similar to most countries, the pay is no longer low.
Romania had universities since the 1870s, though those of means still preferred foreign ones, France for humanities and Germany for what is now STEM. By the 1930 local universities were formed due to demand, and Romania had a student population per capita higher than many countries. But the economy did not have the jobs graduates expected, especially based on their various majors, not many of which were engineering or medicine. The, off course, blamed the foreigners.
In the meantime, the status of the peasantry improved quite slowly. After the first world war, there was another wave of giving land to peasants, but the land was not enough, mortality was decreasing, and there were too many adult children splitting the parents land. I mentioned in my previous post the very conservative outlook of the peasants, which resisted new agricultural methods or crops and getting more into trades. There were concerted attempts to get peasants to send their children as apprentices to the city as industrialization increased and the urban economy grew, but these were resisted by parents saying either by “they will lose their faith and tradition”, or by “we were poor all our lives they can be the same”. This led to many of the profession being disproportionately occupied foreigners. Some of these were Jews, and I assume you know where this is going. Furthermore, as the boyars neglected their estates, they just rented them out to administrators, which further rented them to sharecropper peasants. As the absentee owners were not directly visible, the resentment was towards the intermediaries, a good number of which were (((you know))). This led to xenophobia and antisemitism.
All sorts of things were blamed on foreigners and the Jewish in particular. They ended up being disproportionately pub owners and were blamed for rising alcoholism. More pubs were owned by Romanians who sold the exact things the foreigners sold, but the foreigners were blamed, especially with the decline of wine drinking and the rise of hard liquor. Overall foreigners tended to be more entrepreneurial than locals, which caused resentment. The conservative peasants were content in poverty as long as everyone was the same, not when some poppies grew taller.
Many Romanians did correctly perceive they were oppressed by foreign powers for hundreds of years. As I mentioned, the heavy tribute and frequent wars and need for foreign patronage by local elites impoverished the country and stunted development. Though these were not the fault of some foreigners coming here employed in the trades or starting small businesses. But, as always, they were an easy target for demagoguery. As such, we got the Iron Guard, which has a comprehensive wiki page so I will not go into details here. But they took the orthodox identity which locals used during the time of foreign domination to create unity, the situation of the peasants and the many students unhappy with not finding the jobs they wanted. And this started a still ongoing tradition of some claiming Romanians are not just another people like all others, which has suffered the various horrors of history, but a special people, the greatest people, which the jealous foreigners banded together to keep down. The foreigners falsified our true history and made us forget our true nature and our true consciousness. If we regain our true spirit, we will be the greatest in the world, and only the foreign is preventing us from this. This was a credo of the Iron Guard and it still is in sovereigntist circles.
Then the communist came and, given we live in a mad world, their legacy is seen as “mixed” instead of universally awful, as
seen by both new tankies and some old people’s nostalgia for the times. The sovereigntists say that despite what he did Ceausescu was a patriot. Why they say that is beyond me, how can own oppress their people and be a patriot, but I assume is that all the horrible means are excused by some noble end which never came. Just like in soviet Russia, the communists did accelerate industrialization and modernization, but at what cost. The difficulties the previous leaders encountered with the conservative peasantry were resolved by sheer brutality, collectivizing the farms and forcibly moving population to brutalist cities. It did not work that well. When Romania – a significant oil producer- passed peak oil and all the industry that was built on international debt proved highly inefficient and unprofitable, the debt was paid by selling anything possible, mostly food and resourced, which resulted in hunger and cold for the masses. When things started going bad, after a visit to North Korea, Ceausescu replaced the promises of prosperity with an attempt at a North Korean style personality cult. Then communism fell, before we went full North Korea. And we got what we have now.
The new ruling class was comprised of the old commie ruling class, except a few who were killed, just rebranded. In the 90s there was a strong Russian influence on the leader of the country, Ion Iliescu and a strong influence of the new local oligarchy.
This somewhat abated with NATO and the EU, but did not go away. The system set in place in the 90s was one that was very hard to reform, even if there was the will to do it. It was based on local barons which controlled the counties, but did not have enough tax moneys to cover expenses, and a central government which taxed what was productive and redistributed to the barons. The barons depended on central money, the central government depended on barons vote farming for them. The rural/small town population was still 50% and their vote was usually controlled, they were sufficiently scared of change that they voted however the local mayor told them. This was also due to the inevitable chaos that followed the collapse of communism, as in all other countries, and the desire for stability, be that stability in poverty. The same lack of ambition besides the bare necessities permeated an oppressed people who did not think anything good can come to them and had low time preference. Any new party with some reform on the mind could make headway in the cities, but never had the infrastructure to get anywhere in the small villages spread out over the countryside, which were dominated by the old party oligarchs. The economy in that area was generally suppressed to keep people dependent, to not give the idea they might succeed without the corrupt barons. Baron is not used here as a title of nobility. Some lived in poverty and resorted often to alcoholism, others moved to the cities or went abroad.
The old commies became the FSN – Frontul Salvarii Nationale which supported “socialism with a human face”. They then became PDSF (the democratic socialism party) and finally PSD (the current social democrat party). They were in power for most of the last 35 years. The history of modern Romanian politics was PSD vs the rest. And the rest either tried to form a non-PSD coalition, or some just joined PSD. Since 2000 PSD never had more than 50%, they had 35 to 45 % support, which always made them the largest individual party in the parliament. But there was a snag. It mostly did not get them the presidency, which required 50+ %. And this in a way shaped a lot of things.
The ones who went abroad in mostly menial or physical labor jobs created a similar dynamic to the 1930s, where there was a mass of people highly resentful they are “slaving away” to foreigners and foreign bosses. This also created significant social problems at home, as children left behind, with grandparents who felt abandoned and this combined with the poor quality of rural education, meant that parents working hard did not see any better future for their children. Already young Romanian women are massively over-represented among prostitutes in European brothels, and young men in hard, physically demanding jobs. The people abroad were often not that educated, and did not try to integrate in the new countries they worked in. They did not speak the languages well, moved in neighborhoods with many Romanians, only had Romanian friends, only consumed Romanian cultural products via the internet. They only ever wanted to go back home, away for the foreign culture which they often saw as degenerate – not entirely wrong to be fair – and were ripe for a sovereigntist messiah which promised would make Romanian a great country. And they could come back and take raise their kids and be prosperous in the old country, not among foreign lands and foreign cultures. All we needed was a true national awakening.
The presidency is voted in two rounds. The top two in the first go head to head in the second. After Iliescu lost the presidency the first time in 1996, he had a plan for the year 2000. The PSD candidate was always in the second round, so the idea was to be against someone more unpalatable. In those times the national sovereigntist party was PRM led by one Corneliu Vadim Tudor, which had a passionate following among few but was greatly disliked by many others. By manipulating the voting machines, Iliescu got Vadim Tudor in the second round and won easily. Since then, starting with 2004, the PSD did not have the presidency for 20 years. Which brings us to this year and the fuckery that happened. The PSD candidate was Marcel Ciolacu, a man who graduated high school at the age of 37 and was seen as quite corrupt in many of his dealings, and not very popular. And the most likely thing is that he tried to recreate a 2000 style situation, getting in the second round with an unpalatable candidate.
The two parties that have been significant from 1990 to today are PSD and PNL (national liberal party, more in name than in policy) but PNL was always second fiddle, and mostly they were OK with that because they could steal in peace without being the focus of attention. the politics of 2004 to 2014 were defined by a one-man crew, Traian Băsescu, and his party PDL (democratic liberal party) who held control though his individual charisma and ability as a politician. This led to most other parties creating a great coalition against Băsescu. After he stopped being president, his party went into obscurity and started an era of PSD and PNL domination. From 2014 to 2024 the president was from PNL, Klaus Iohannis, who’s only calling card was being an ethnic German from Sibiu. And was rather useless and uninvolved.
Now, the nutjob that managed to win the first round, Calin Gerogescu, was not really on the radar so no one paid him any mind. He had been on the edge of various politics since communism fell. Based on his background, he was trained as a soil
scientist and was one of the members of the communist secret police which rebranded himself after the fall. It is suspected he was a KGB contact throughout the 90s, but the files from that period were destroyed. But he was one of the people in the orbit of Iliescu, held some government positions – though he got there by faking the official exams, then founded various NGOs used to siphon funds from programs like SAPARD. He also did shady real estate deals, like any self-respecting secret police member in post-communist Romania. He was then named by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to some UN position for a while, and then he joined some NGOs that sounded like they were part of the UN but were not, focused on sustainability. After a while he rebranded himself as a sovereigntist and a neo-legionary it seems. I have to admit he was off my radar before the election. As with several obscure candidates, I did not read anything by him in the press. I specifically searched his website and read his program , which was just nonsense and demagoguery for morons, I just laughed and moved on. Little did I know. The main issue is I do not think he believes his own rhetoric, so I have no idea what he actually believes and what he is up to. Is he a Russian asset, is he something else, no one really knows. Or at least not me. For what it is worth, there were some serious campaign finance violation, as millions were spent but he declared 0 expenses. There are different opinions on campaign finance laws, but those existing were broken.
The main sovereigntist party in Romania was AUR, which had a surprising great result in the parliamentary elections of 2020. This split into two, based on an argument between George Simion and Diana Iovanovici-Șoșoacă, the latter splitting and forming the party SOS. Simion was doing better in the polls, and as such was probably the unpalatable candidate desired by PSD. TO this end the constitutional court, controlled by PSD, declared Șoșoacă as ineligible to run due to neo-Nazi propaganda or somesuch, thinking all her vote would bolster Simion. The general idea was that with Șoșoacă in the running, the second round of the election would have Ciolacu with the candidate from USR – a center right reformist party – Elena Lasconi. And this Ciolacu risked losing. Șoșoacă would have gotten 6% tops so there was no real reason to suspend her, especially since Gerogescu said worse things in past interviews. And now came the great surprise. Georgescu had a massive social media campaign which was very well timed, started less than a month before the election. This was coupled with the support of one of a high-ranking priests in the Romanian Orthodox Church – Archbishop Teodosie, which called Georgescu a man sent by God to save Romania, and instructed rural priests to tell their congregation to vote for him, though this is against official church policy. But many priests still have neo-legionary sympathies and Iron Guard nostalgia, because priests were high status for the legionaries. The Archbishop was generally sympathetic to the Guard and also disgruntled because he lost in his efforts to become Mitropolit. All this – social media for disgruntled diaspora workers and some urbanites, priest for some rural votes and getting all the votes from Șoșoacă, at least 5% – pushed Georgescu in the second round. Șoșoacă voters did not want to vote Simion as they
left AUR not on the best terms. Without those votes Georgescu would not have gotten in the second round irrespective of his campaign. But he did, which is all that matters. And in something PSD never expected, their candidate did not make the second round at all, as Lasconi joined Georgescu. And this led to the election being annulled, an unprecedented move which will have no shortage of negative repercussions. My suspicion is that if Ciolacu had made the second round, the election would not have been annulled and there would have been a push for everyone to unite against Georgescu, thus giving PSD the presidency. But alas, this was not meant to be.
And as they say, the plot thickened. The PNL candidate was a former army general named Ciuca, who was not seen with a great chance of making the second round. But some in PNL thought he could get past Lasconi but not past Simion so they had a plan. It seems PNL finances some pro Georgescu social media content. They though the would syphon votes from SImion to a candidate that had no chance, and this Ciuca would pass Simion into the second round. This was, off course, stupid. But in the end PSD sent Șoșoacă votes to Gerogescu and PNL sent some Simion votes to Gerogescu. And the rest is, as they say, history.
One factor was Ciolacu and PSD gaining almost no votes in the diaspora. The more educated people in higher status jobs voted for Lasconi, the others for Georgescu. There is also some information that PSD used the party machine to transfer some votes to Simion, thinking Ciolacu is guaranteed to be in the second round, a miscalculation it seems. The existence of Russian involvement is likely but uncertain. And in a way irrelevant. The mainstream politics of Europe is so detached from that people want that they are practically writing the opposition propaganda for them. People see all the talk on the LGBTQ stuff, the identity politics, the green nonsense and no one dressing their issues, like rising cost of living, unaffordable housing, out of control immigration from backwards cultures, rising crime and so on. Off course there is propaganda about it as well. A good
example was Gerogescu supporters flooding the internet calling Lasconi the LGBTQ candidate, even though she literally went into conflict with her party when she said she does not support gay marriage. On the other hand, the young urban progressives dislike Lasconi because she is religious and wears a head covering as is traditional for women when going into church. So the same person is too LGBTQ for some and not LGBTQ enough for others. URS party used to be bigger, as it was a originally a big tent reformist party, something that rarely works. It got smaller when the very left and very progressive did not like the center right position the majority of the party wanted, with SENS and REPER creating offshoots. SENS filled the gap of the gay ecosocialist party that no one seemed to want as they did not make the 5% parliamentary threshold.
What is next? I do not know. To compound the fuckery, the current president, who’s term expires on the 21st of December, had his term extended by some legal loophole or other, when normally the president of the Senate should have been interim president until a new one is elected. Then again based on performance of the past few years you could replace the current president with a sack of potatoes. I have no idea when exactly the next election will be and who will or will not be allowed to run, how the voters will react and what this will do for the long term governance of the country. In the second round as things stood, I do not know who would have won, but Lasconi had a good chance. But that did not please PSD who wanted to control the presidency and this time would not let something like the voters stand in their way. This would never have happened without the original fuckery of suspending Șoșoacă, but that is irrelevant now. But nothing good can come of this.
re-reading this post now I am not that happy with it. The flow is kinda wrong and there are some grammar mistakes I should have noticed before submitting. It was a rushed job over all… oh well
jeez this is horrible I don;t think I ever had so many mistakes.
Don’t sweat it! It will take me a bit to read it, however,
Having written here even the simplest post takes a fair amount of work.
I think I focused too much on adding the relevant info and not on the wording grammar, there are missing words, wrong words gahh dressed in stead of addressed etc
It’s OK. We got the necessary information.
Hah! You’re a native English speaker (writer), now! Embrace the fuckups!
It’s really a great job. One thing I found all over Europe was an amazing ability for many people to work in English as a second or third language. Millions more don’t speak English regularly, “my English is bad, sorry,” and then it turns out their command is superior to that of half the hillbillies I’m related to.
“English is my native language, which means I speak it proficiently not fluently.”
Indeed, don’t sweat the small mistakes – your writing is still perfectly clear.
Although that cast of characters needs a Most Wanted board. And maybe some red yarn and thumbtacks…
Yeah I’m not sure I have any clearer understanding of the situation than before 😑
Soooo many parties and I’m guessing little or nothing to distinguish them.
#cue Life of Brian party scene
Splitters!
Pie trying to explain the web of nonsense in Romanian politics:
Soooo many parties and I’m guessing little or nothing to distinguish them.
The superiority of Parliamentary systems! Maybe they need RCV?
I, too, am finding it a challenge to follow the details, but my overall impression is that among other…shall we say “irregularities,” factions are trying to game the multiple-rounds-of-voting system. Of course, there probably hasn’t been any kind of system created that someone hasn’t tried to game.
Create a set of rules, people will seek ways to game them.
Amazing
I’d be pretty happy with a sinecure, depending on their attendance and internet usage policies.
Thanks, Pie – this is all super interesting. It’s probably less “interesting” than “concerning” if you have to live through it. My condolences.
Things could be much worse here.
Huh, at first I thought he was describing the Chicago City Council…
Also a soil scientist
Liet Kynes?
(Not logging into the book of faces, so no idea if I’m stepping on the joke)
James Cassidy, Information Society
(Not logged into FB either, displays the photo for me)
My takeaway is end absentee and remote voting. Show up to the physical booth for your precinct on election day. Or don’t.
well here there is not much remote voting. The people voting abroad go to polling stations there and fill paper ballots.
My takeaway is that Romanian politics are worse than Dwarven politics.
Off course there is propaganda about it as well. A good example was Gerogescu supporters flooding the internet calling Lasconi the LGBTQ candidate, even though she literally went into conflict with her party when she said she does not support gay marriage. On the other hand, the young urban progressives dislike Lasconi because she is religious and wears a head covering as is traditional for women when going into church. So the same person is too LGBTQ for some and not LGBTQ enough for others.
It is all so tiresome.
Thanks Pie!
based on performance of the past few years you could replace the current president with a sack of potatoes
There’s no need to provoke our jealousy.
Hey, Brooks, those abominators are the types who would put a fiberglass Testa Rossa car kit on a ’64 ‘Vette ’cause it donne ga fest enuf inna strate lie-en!!! Yuck Yuck, wers ma false teeth, gotta look good down at the Comedy Barn!
Jeez, buy a Camaro and put it up on blocks in the front yard already.
But nothing good can come of this.
These politicians surprise me a little. It isn’t as if there aren’t recent examples of your people taking a rather emphatic approach to dealing with corrupt leaders.
Thanks as always, Pie.
Oh boy. Can’t wait to dig into this. Let me refill my cup of blood…
gay ecosocialist party
No nation should be without one.
Main take-away: Romania is a heavily sexist society, what with all the male supreme court (?) members forced to give up their seats to the womynz.
That and substitute a few ‘Merican names in places and you would have a reasonably accurate characterization of some US politics….
so Șoșoacă … would ?
Paging Tres, Tres Cool to the white courtesy phone…
Twoooo…. weeeeekkkksssss….
They ended up being disproportionately pub owners and were blamed for rising alcoholism.
(((Guilty.)))
And seriously, thanks so much. I didn’t get to the first part in time to comment, but it gave me a far-less-ignorant-than-before historic insight.
Fukuyama’s folly
Even as authoritarianism and nationalism spread in many parts of the world, and as jihadism destabilized huge parts of the Middle East and spread terrorism in cities of the West, at least the true democracies were immune. Within Western societies, perhaps, the end of history still held true.
Sadly, this too started falling apart, and 2024 was the year when we can move on to a different thesis. Western democracies—particularly the United States—revealed themselves to far be more wobbly than we thought. Hyper-polarization, rampant disinformation, the erosion of shared realities, and the indifference to liberal democracy’s basic ideas are defining features of the era.
Part of the reason is the digital revolution and social media in particular. These eliminated mainstream media as the gatekeepers ensuring the public discourse was largely confined within certain guardrails of civility and shared narrative. Now everyone, including the most radical agitators, is a publisher. And it turns out that human beings, if given the chance, are attracted to agitation and highly susceptible to lies.
There is even an intellectual foundation for this in the “post-modern” thought of the middle and late 20th century, which rejected universal truths and “metanarratives”—implying all ideas are somehow valid.
Chaos. Anarchy. Trump.
Great Pie! Don’t sweat the grammar or flow. We’d tear it apart regardless.
The most dangerous assault on all of this comes from the ascendence of illiberal right-wing forces like the U.S. cult of President-elect Donald Trump—who has now been reelected to a non-consecutive term even though his first four calamitous years made his intentions crystal clear. We can safely say that Trump has no fidelity to the principles of liberal democracy, is a nationalist and would-be authoritarian, and hates the U.S. system. The Department of Government Efficiency—through which Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, will try to put middle-income people out of work—well reflects the hatred.
Versions of this are visible all over the democratic world. Some once-aspiring democracies are now dictatorships by choice of an electorate—the most egregious case being Russia, and to a lesser degree in Hungary and Turkey.
Romania, too, is now teetering on the brink. Russian President Vladimir Putin staged a TikTok attack in the days before its Nov. 24 first round of the presidential election. The winner by plurality, which Putin illegally schemed to boost, hates the European Union and NATO and wants to reorient the country toward Russia—and away from liberal democracy. A week after that, a third of Romanians voted for parties that support that worldview. The presidential election has been annulled by the nation’s supreme court, and many Romanians are in shock. Putin’s campaign was illegal, yes—but the people who voted accordingly actually did vote.
The globe is awash in political candidates I hate. Why do we allow people to vote for them?
“will try to put middle-income people out of work”
Kind of sums up that kind of thinking – the most important thing is that people have jobs, regardless of what those jobs might contribute to wealth or stability.
How will the Washington Metro function without 4 employees with clipboards standing on every platform?
Standing? All day? I don’t think so.
Well, four standing at any given time, each has a number of backup clipboard holders on break, resting up for their turn to be one of the standing four. Plus however many are on vacation or out sick on the day.
There was little that distinguished his first 4 years from those of any other president
Doesn’t much matter as the U.S. is always willing to shower money on whichever hateful candidate wins and says a few kind words about our president.
[Fukuyama] now seems to get it. In a recent article for the Financial Times, Fukuyama asserted that Trump’s 2024 victory signals a “decisive rejection” of liberalism by U.S. voters. This time he got it right. The events of 2024—the culmination of decades of systemic erosion—reflect a dispiriting reality: The supposed end of history, the good karma of 1989, was nothing more than a pause in the storm.
Oh, no, the tragic repudiation of “liberal” Democrat-ocracy by the seething hick masses. Keep pushing, bub. Eventually you will get your head so far up your ass you’ll disappear completely.
Fukuyama has to be the winner of “the most wrong, publicly” award since “Peace, in our time.”
I can’t believe I took that ignorant turd seriously a couple decades ago.
I wonder what he even means by “liberalism” oh never mind, I don’t care.
Many in the intellectual class seem to suggest that Trump is, by far, one of the most brilliant politicians of all time. His strategy was to win a first term, govern fairly normally, run for re-election, lose, campaign again, win, and THEN institute a dictatorship.
“I wonder what he even means by “liberalism”
Good Things.
I’ve yet to read or hear about a politician or intellectual of Japanese descent that isn’t sympathetic to socialism or communism. They all seem to be statists.
I’ve wondered of its the Confucian influence.
Except that they were saying he was going to institute a dictatorship the first time around and would refuse to leave office.
Hell, they were playing up that he would refuse to accept the first election results if it went against him.
I don’t think I’m expecting that dictatorship but as others have insinuated I think losing in 2020 and then winning again after four years of actual chaos will hopefully give Trump and (better) friends some of the perspective they need to do better than last time around.
Wishful thinking, I guess.
Georgescu had a massive social media campaign which was very well timed, started less than a month before the election. This was coupled with the support of one of a high-ranking priests in the Romanian Orthodox Church – Archbishop Teodosie, which called Georgescu a man sent by God to save Romania, and instructed rural priests to tell their congregation to vote for him, though this is against official church policy.
Not fair. Campaigning and endorsements by prominent religious figures should be strictly regulated, if not prohibited entirely, at least for opposition upstarts.
“PNL was always second fiddle, and mostly they were OK with that because they could steal in peace without being the focus of attention”
That sounds familiar, somehow.
What a snakepit. Typical of most politics, I suppose. The deets are interesting, though – disgruntled bishops don’t really have any stroke here in the US, and with only two parties and no runoffs the game is simpler, although the options for dirtbags to stab each other in the back are less.
Many in the intellectual class seem to suggest that Trump is, by far, one of the most brilliant politicians of all time.
Only an evil genius could have outmaneuvered them so adroitly. They did everything right.
How did he defeat two of the most qualified candidates ever?
Misinformation, disinformation, and those damn Russians, that’s how. Oh, also racism and sexism.
Probably should say sexism two times.
Relevant:
https://x.com/daily_romania/status/1874105932176908443
So basically the powers that be mismanaged their interference with the election, failed to get the result they wanted in their rigged election, so they annulled the result and gave themselves a do over?
It’s a nice gig when you can get it.
I thought we were discussing Romania, not the USA.
See? AI is useful!
Sweet Jesus.
Put a pillow over the monitor and shoot the computer sixteen times.
You can have AI generate comic strips for you.
https://www.glibertarians.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/OIG3.gDeNU5F26ySkTP40cEj7.jpg
The prompt (not mine) was “A Peanuts cartoon with Andy Warhol discussing his philosophy of art.”
Got a laugh out of me.
Kamala with coke? Maybe a dusting on the edge of her wine glass.
Let’s see, San Francisco, ‘90s – ‘00s, party girl?
Yeah, Kams has done some lines.
Do-nothing Congress, FTW!
If measured by the number of bills signed into law, the 118th Congress was by far the most unproductive since at least the 1980s, according to data from public affairs firm Quorum.
——-
By the numbers: The 118th Congress passed just under 150 bills over the last two years, according to the Quorum data provided to Axios.
That’s down from more than 350 passed in the previous Congress — in which Democrats held control of both chambers and the White House.
The 17 Congresses since the start of George H.W. Bush’s presidency in 1989 have passed an average of more than 380 laws.
Try harder. We need to get those numbers down into the low double digits.
Including flat out repeals, not replacement, of existing laws.
If 99% of the ones passes were repealing old laws, then I’d be good with 150.
Thank you.
As others have commented, don’t sweat the grammar; your writing was clear, the points you made made sense, and though I got a bit lost in the names nad personalities I could figure out what was happening and what happened. The loser party didn’t just lose it got annihilated at the polls, and since the winner didn’t belong to the Inner Party, he had to go. IMO they were planning on a repeat of what happened to Le Pen in France, only it went sideways.
Your essay touched on a lot of similar events and power structures I have read about in other countries.
1.45 million government employees, many of whom acquired their positions by patronage. Sounds very Byzantine to me.
Oversupply of uni graduates – South America had (and still has) a similar problem. Many unemployed disgruntled ex-students ended up in the military, with predictable results.
Barons keeping the peasantry down by suppressing the local economy – James Michener in his book Iberia described the same exact thing (the book was written in the late 1960’s when Franco was still in power although his days were clearly numbered).
“Oversupply of uni graduates – South America had (and still has) a similar problem.”
As does North America.
You would think, if you didn’t know better, that the Romanian political class would remember what happened to Nicolae Ceaușescu.
https://www.reddit.com/r/UtterlyUniquePhotos/comments/1d6gl41/the_moment_of_the_execution_of_nicolae_and_elena/?rdt=62176
::collapses into chair:: I worked until noon, frantically getting payroll finalized more or less correctly despite the payroll processor’s valiant efforts to screw up SOMEONE’S Health Savings Account deductions, then made an ill-advised trip to the grocery along with most of the population of the greater Englewood, Ohio, area. Now I think I can finally relax and read this article.
This should be hanging in the lobby of every federal office building as a helpful reminder that the consent of the governed may be revoked at any time.
Michigan played the entire 2nd half of the bowl game without a QB and still beat Alabama.
Rollover Tide.
I love this imagery! Original to you, Pie, or a common Romanian expression?
Tall poppy syndrome is a classical allusion, may even be greek in origin.
Sorry, Roman.
It is universal and eternal. Every culture since the beginning of time has had it to some degree. In much of Latin America it is called The Big Man system. It takes the reverse view – that anyone with more than everyone else is obligated to share it. The end result is the same. Those who do not share get clipped same as the poppies.
Envy is the greatest of human evils. The old ‘Money is the root of all evil’ saying is true just not in the way that most people think.
Australian really
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tall_poppy_syndrome
Don’t let the antipodians steal it, Pie.
Why do you have antipathy for the antipodes?
Everything is upside down and backwards there.
“It takes the reverse view – that anyone with more than everyone else is obligated to share it.”
That was pretty much the culture in WV where my dad grew up, I believe it was probably universal up and down the mountain chain and in other places where life was hard and all hands were needed on deck to scrape out a bare existence. It helps ensure everyone survives but is not conducive to anything but bare survival.
I agree.
And the trees are all kept equalBy hatchet, axe, and saw
Oooh, I loved that, too. I’ve never heard nor seen it in print. *secrets it off for later use, though will replace ‘poppies’ with something that fits the context*
Stick with poppies, would be my advice. No need to resto-mod the classics, amirite?
The nail that sticks up gets pounded down. 🇯🇵