OCPAC Weekly Insights Monday Edition November 4, 2019
| | This Wednesday's OCPAC Meeting November 6, 2019 Noon to 1 PM | | In Person and... Live on Blue Moose TV & Facebook
Hopper Smith Executive Director Oklahoma Workers' Compensation Commission Brigadier General, Retired | |
The Devilish Nature of Agencies Overcoming the Diabolical with Battlefield Tactics Part 2
Hopper Smith provided an exceptionally clear and stimulating overview of the elements which transformed Oklahoma’s Workers’ Compensation Commission. He discussed the internal resistance from those within the agency who were fighting not so much for the Oklahoma worker or the Oklahoma employer, but for themselves.
This coming Wednesday, at OCPAC’s mid-week luncheon, Hopper will continue to unwrap the particulars of the struggle we all have when we seek, through the legislative process, to bring government under control. The work needed to make it a servant of the people as opposed to a means for a few to fleece the many.
Hopper Smith speaks at OCPAC Wednesday | | OCPAC has moved its Wednesday Meeting to... | | LOCATION CHANGE!!! Café do Brasil 440 NW 11th, OKC 11th and Walker
THIS WEDNESDAY NOON to 1 PM
$15.50 Adult buffet including food, drink, tax, & tip
$4.00 Children ten and under
$2 if not eating
See menu at bottom of newsletter | | Today's Content
The Government Agency and Heisenberg Uncertainty by Bob Linn
Last Week at OCPAC
Hopper Smith
Charlie Meadows Teacher Retirement How to stop the bleeding
OCPAC EDITORIAL
Steve Anderson Pay to Play The Wealth of Politicians
Special Events
James Robison Coming to City Elders January 2020
Other
OSU Cowboys Take TCU Pokes have nation's leading rusher! OCPAC ~ CITY ELDERS
New Venue Restaurant Details
Book Recommendations | | The Government Agency and Heisenberg Uncertainty by Bob Linn | Hopper Smith has been taking us through the difficulties inherent in the task of reforming agencies. Government agencies include multi-causal interdependencies and many stakeholders with political agendas and social complexities.
Attempts to address the problem have impacts which cannot be known, as the many elements of the agency will morph in ways unforeseen and often illogical so they cannot be foreknown. Those who work on these problems liken the rules of engagement (speaking here of government agencies) to the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. Heisenberg's uncertainty is something the world of physics presents to us when penetrating beneath the outer shell of Newtonian physics in order to look into the world of quantum physics. Somehow, the more exact we measure the position of a particle, the less accurately we can measure its velocity. And, visa versa. Sort of like trying to nail jello to a wall. Hence, the difficulties of agency reform.
What we know for sure is that no agency will ever reform itself. Reform, while difficult, will come only from the outside. This means you and I must all be involved in politics. Only the legislature can reform agencies. Throwing more money at an agency will do nothing. And, only you can help build a great legislature by our involvement in the process of recruiting, training, and campaigning. | Just so you know, this applies to many more agencies than Workers' Compensation. It applies to the Oklahoma State Department of Education, for example. Giving this or any other agency more money does nothing. Only you and I can make the transformations needed.
We have given the educational bureaucracy in Oklahoma lots of money, but have never seen reform. Not ever.
This was explained pretty well by John Taylor Gatto, New York's Teacher of the Year, in a Wall Street Journal article back in 1992. Here are his paraphrased comments: “Our professional interests are best served by making what is easy to do seem hard. [This agency] represents a much too vital a jobs project, contract-giver, and protector of social order to allow itself to be ‘re-formed’. It has political allies to guard its marches. That’s why reforms come and go – without changing much. Even reformers cannot imagine change that is much different.”
The Oklahoma Chamber of Commerce expressed much the same sentiment when looking at a leading cause for business to leave the state prior to its 2013 reform. Their 2012 legislative wrap-up went like this: “Unfortunately lawyers, judges and medical providers continue to avoid the reforms passed in these pieces of legislation. Oklahoma businesses pay the 4th highest premiums in the country for workers’ compensation.”
Fortunately, thanks to the leadership of then State Senator Scott Pruitt, meaningful legislation was finally passed (and signed by the governor) so that Oklahoma's workers' compensation insurance costs were drastically reduced. And, businesses returned to our state. | Hopper pointed out last week that bureaucracy of some form is necessary under government. But we live in an era where constitutional constraints are eschewed and the bureaucratic machine is becoming more politicized.
Hopper quoted Lord Acton on the topic. Lord Acton was an English Catholic historian, writer, and politician. “Bureaucracy is undoubtedly the weapon and sign of a despotic government, inasmuch as it gives whatever government it serves, despotic power,” declared Lord Acton. Bureaucracy, by its nature, is problematic to the notion of self-government. | Bureaucracy is a threat to liberty and it’s not accountable to the people. At least, that is what the 30th President of the United States thought. Below is an excerpt of a speech he gave to the College of William & Mary in 1926. He was actually president of the college at the time. He said:
"No method of procedure has ever been devised by which liberty could be divorced from local self-government. No plan of centralization has ever been adopted which did not result in bureaucracy, tyranny, inflexibility, reaction, and decline.
Of all forms of government, those administered by bureaus are about the least satisfactory to an enlightened and progressive people. Being irresponsible, they become autocratic, and being autocratic they resist all development. Unless bureaucracy is constantly resisted it breaks down representative government and overwhelms democracy. It is the one element in our institutions that sets up the pretense of having authority over everybody and being responsible to nobody."
Come hear how Hopper Smith negotiated the transformation of an agency and lived to tell about it. Enjoy a Wednesday lunch with us at Oklahoma City's Cafe do Brasil! | In Addition to Hopper Smith, Featured Last Week Charlie Meadows OCPAC Founder | The OCPAC Right Flank Why Teachers Leave Oklahoma
Last Wednesday, Charlie spoke of the little known elements of Oklahoma's teacher retirement funds. The mechanism used is called defined benefits. The more economically responsible method (it is used in the corporate world) is defined contributions. Until we fix the problem, we will continue to see Oklahoma teachers retire when they have maxed out their retirement funds and begin a new career in another state. This enables them to establish two retirement funds. | POLITICAL MINUTE Steve Anderson Pay to Play How Politicians Get Rich | It is obvious that journalists have no idea how “pay to play” works. I actually worked on tracking political corruption in an environment that was full of it. My work ended with multiple politicians going to federal prison. Here are my thoughts.
[By the way: Why was it federal, instead of a state prison, when these were state elected officials? This is a story of wide scale “party” corruption for another time.] | Political corruption seldom has a money trail that is straight line to the politician. These people are not dumb. After all, they tricked enough people into voting for them to get elected. They will not drop a bread crumb trail for the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
The usual payola ploy is to send it through a family member. Biden, Pelosi, and the Clintons sent it through their children. Kerry sent it through a step son. | Let’s look at Hunter Biden. Would you hire someone ( and pay them $80,000 per month) who just lost their last job because of cocaine use when that person has no experience in your industry? Of course not.
The Ukrainian oil and gas company, Burisma Holdings, did not hire Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, for his expertise. In fact, we don’t even know if this flunky kid ever attended a board meeting or what, if anything, he provided in personal service. | Here is what we do know: American aid was held up at a time that Russia was over running Crimea. The aid was being held up until a prosecutor investigating Burisma Holdings, the Ukrainian oil and gas company of interest, was fired. Vice-President Biden bragged about his blackmail to remove the prosecutor in a public interview.
There was no furor over this use of American aid to bully another country’s legal system. This is about as a straight line of bread crumbs you will ever see. A trail only the blind could miss. Any person who thinks the two events were unrelated is devoid of even an ounce of commonsense. | Politicians use book deals and speaking fees to avoid campaign finance law limits on contributions. Does anyone believe that Clinton’s or Biden’s books made money for the publisher?
Simon & Schuster is not believed to have made back the advance they gave Bill Clinton. | The other cute little dodge is the ‘campaign war chest’ funds. These war chests pay family and friends large amounts to do work they could get for a fraction of that total in the open market.
Upon leaving office, a politician often has a huge amount of campaign funds unspent. There are limitations on where it can be spent. It is typically given to another candidate to buy influence with another politician. Politicians are brilliant. Otherwise, they wouldn’t get rich on a legislator’s salary. | The supposed news organizations are no longer ‘arm’s length’ sources of information. They are complicit in the good old boy network of DC. In return for their cooperation and simply for looking the other way, access is granted to stories to feed the masses.
Every once in a while, someone writes a book or a story about the wealth accumulation of an elected official that shows the pay to play end results. If you follow these stories you will notice that they come and go in the news cycle with little fanfare.
~Edited for OCPAC by Bob Linn | | COMING TO CITY ELDERS James & Betty Robison Tulsa, Oklahoma Thursday, January 9, 2020 6:30 PM | | Chuba Hubbard leads NCAA with 1,604 yards! WELL DONE, COWBOYS!!! | | The OCPAC compact with City Elders is significant for both organizations. Most importantly, the partnership is significant for the future of Oklahoma.
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From Wed July 24, 2019: Shooting Back Charl Van Wyk
From Wed August 21, 2019: Crimes of the Educators Blumenfeld & Newman | | Not A Daycare Still an important read | | Dr. Piper is one of God's choice men. He is leading the way in the American Church and in the American Christian University by calling for a return to epistemological bedrock. I urge those of you who have not read his book, Not A Day Care: The Devastating Consequences of Abandoning Truth, to order a copy today. It is available very inexpensively here. | | Help support OCPAC'S mission. Join OCPAC or send a contribution today! To print donation form and mail a check, use the MAIL DONATION button below: | | The button below will enable you to electronically join OCPAC or to make a donation through our website: | | | | | | |
