Things are getting better, not worse, when it comes to the incompetence of our current set of politicians. And that should make us all very, very scared.
1) The Federal bureaucrat in charge of the Federal government’s involvement in the country’s housing and mortgage industries recently came up with a brilliant idea: Mel Watt announced that he wants to reverse the course of his predecessor, Edward DeMarco, and allow Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to make it easier for low income American families to buy a house, using the Federal government and the American taxpayer to back stop the program.
His plan calls for the Federal housing and mortgage agencies to buy more refinancing mortgages for low-income families and to increase Fannie Mae's goals for low-income families in multifamily units. It also would set a new goal for low-income families in smaller multi-family units.
Brilliant! That same concept worked so well the last time that it almost crashed the entire global financial system, drove millions of Americans into foreclosure, created a housing price bubble that burst dramatically, drove many banks and other financial institutions (Bear Sterns, Lehman Brothers, etc.) into bankruptcy, and created the worse economic downturn since the Great Depression. How stupidly ridiculous can one get. You cannot make this stuff up.
Einstein once said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and hoping for a different result. I guess this definition applies to anyone in charge of Federal housing and mortgage agencies. The first time created the Great Recession, it has to be different the second time if we do the exact same things.
2) Court documents obtained by Breitbart Texas show that a campaign manager for a Hidalgo County Commissioner tried to use cocaine to buy votes, based on a Federal investigation. The documents allege that: “that a Hidalgo County Commissioner paid for votes with bags of cocaine while other politicians paid for votes also with cash, cigarettes, marijuana and beer.”
Already, two campaign workers, Belinda Solis and Veronica Salazar, have been formally charged with vote buying. The two are just a small part of a massive two-year FBI investigation into corruption in Hidalgo County which began in January, 2013.
The investigation started when an unnamed campaign manager for a Hidalgo County Commissioner told FBI agents “that he bought cocaine so his campaign workers could give it to the voters in exchange for their votes.” Solis and Salazar were paid campaign employees, known as politiquieras, who targeted low income areas and elderly individuals, enticing them to vote for a particular candidate.
Both women have already admitted to using the cocaine from the campaign manager to buy votes in the County Commissioner election as well as a school board election in the Donna Independent School District. But apparently these are not the only shady political happenings going on in parts of Texas with Democratic political staff and employees:
- Multiple Democratic politicians in South Texas have been charged with vote buying, contract rigging, and bribery money laundering.
- Earlier in 2014, Donna ISD School Board President Alfredo Lugo committed suicide after Federal agents arrested multiple suspects in the vote buying investigation.
- Former Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Trevino was sentenced to 5 years in prison for taking money from Mexican cartel members and using it as campaign funds.
- The Mayor of the town of Progreso has been convicted of running a scheme in which his family controlled all of the contracts that the city and school board gave out and received kickbacks in exchange for the business.
Bribes, drugs, kickbacks, drug cartels, vote buying, sounds like a typical day in the political reality of America today. Despicable.
3) We have often lamented about the lack of economic education, experience, strategic thinking and common sense among the American political class. Our politicians obviously have no idea how to develop and institute sound economic policy that facilitates the growth of a robust economy and the creation of good jobs.
In fact, their ignorance caused us to include a step in “Love My Country, Loathe My Government" to address the issue. The step would require all members of Congress to take and pass a test on economic principles and strategies before taking office in an attempt to improved their economic legislating.
The need for such a step was proven again recently by Vice President Joe Biden. At a recent Labor Day gathering he gave a speech where he proclaimed that today’s economy is not growing because “ordinary people have no money in their pockets.” Again, another brilliant insight from a Federal bureaucrat.
Why do they not have any money in their pocket? Its because this administration and this Congress have no idea how to implement sound economic policy. This has left almost twenty million Americans unemployed or under employed. Of course, with that many people looking or in need of better job opportunities, a lot of them do not have money in their pockets.
Now Biden tries to shift the economic incompetence of this administration onto the “rich” in this country. He tries to say that the rich are taking the money out of the ordinary American’s pocket, it is not the failed economic policies of this administration that has kept those pockets empty. Pure spin, pure B.S.
The economy stinks because of Washington which did not allow people to put money their own pockets, it is not because the rich are taking it out of their pockets which, in turn, causes the economy to sputter. Economic ignorance at its worst.
But these words are from a politician that did not know that FDR was not the President when the Great Depression hit and who believes that FDR went on television to reassure Americans about the future when the Great Depression did hit, another historical falsehood. So being wrong about economic realities should not surprise us.
4) Americans being beheaded. ISIS Islamic terrorists running wild in north Iraq. The Palestinians and Israelis fighting. Nigeria’s young girls being abducted by Islamic terrorists. Over 200,000 dead in Syria’s civil war. Russian soldiers fighting inside the Ukraine. Iran and North Korea closer and closer to becoming nuclear weapon powers. The threat of homeland terror attacks rising.
Despite all of this upheaval, the President had enough time this two weekends ago to attend a wedding and three campaign fundraisers. And our top diplomat, Secretary of State John Kerry had enough time that same weekend to go kiteboarding up in New England.
The world burns, Obama fund raises, Kerry kiteboards. Something wrong with this picture, wrong with these priorities?
5) One last piece of insanity for this month. While veterans cannot get proper medical treatment, the Federal government’s National Institute of Health wasted $715,500 on building a smartphone app that promotes exercise and physical activity as an alternative to marijuana:
“The EA [i.e. the app], which will be designed to specifically appeal to young adults, will provide a readily-accessible, flexible, and convenient platform for personalized information and reminders that promote exercise/PA as a positive alternative to MJ [marijuana] use in ongoing daily life.”
So many problems with this waste of money:
- Seriously, almost three quarters of a million dollars to catalog information that is probably readily available on the web. This is not rocket science or Obama Care according to the description of the project. It is a cataloging of existing information.
- Second, how are marijuana users supposed to find out about this app? Developing the app is one thing, getting people to care about it, download it, and use it is another matter, and expense stream, altogether.
- It is my experience that marijuana users and exercisers are two completely different populations with very little in common. To think that a little smartphone app is going to break down the walls to enlighten marijuana users to the joy of exercising is ridiculous. The reason they smoke marijuana in the first place is for enjoyment.
That will do it for this month’s insanity. Rest assured that somewhere, someone in the political class is hatching more insane actions that waste money, ignore issues, lead to stupid politician quotes, and leave major issues unresolved. And when they do, we will share them with you early next month.
Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:
www.loathemygovernment.com
It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.
Please visit the following sites for freedom:
Term Limits Now: http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w
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