We usually do not start a new month’s insanity until the current month has ended. However, given the political class idiocy seems to be increasing, we started May’s insanity review a day early in order to get a little head start on what is shaping up as an epic month of insanity.
1) Many, many times we have pointed out that this has not turned out to be the “most transparent” Presidential administration ever nor has it ever been one that thinks all laws should be obeyed. Lay on the propensity for this administration to flat out lie and we have one of the most out of integrity Presidencies ever. Ever.
Today we add to that horrible legend. A while ago, the commissioner of the IRS testified under oath in front of Congress that thousands of emails of IRS employee Lois Lerner had been “lost.” These were important emails since they likely showed that Lerner and other high ranking IRS employees, and possibly White House employees, had purposely and illegally used the IRS to hinder the First Amendment rights of conservative and Republican groups to be politically active within IRS guidelines.
Two serious problems if this was reality. First, it would have been an obvious criminal act to not retain those emails for which someone should have been brought up on criminal charges. That fact is indisputable from a law perspective. Secondly, however, if those emails were not lost, merely hidden to avoid uncovering massive political fraud and illegal acts, and someone testified UNDER OATH in front of Congress that they were lost, then you have a whole other set of law breaking.
Given this administration’s penchant for lying, it should come as no surprise that those emails were not destroyed, that thousands of them do exist. This is in direct opposition to what the IRS Commissioner testified to in front of Congress. A Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration has found those “lost” emails that were claimed to have been lost forever. The find included 6,400 lost Lerner emails.
Back in early 2015 when another 32,000 lost Lerner emails were “found,”Katie Pavlich wrote for Townhall that Deputy Inspector General for Investigations, Timothy Camus, had told the House Oversight Committee that there was “potential criminal activity” involved in the disappearance and possible hiding of Lerner’s relevant emails: “Not surprisingly, in order to stonewall the congressional investigation into the targeting of conservative groups, IRS officials never asked IT professionals to look into gathering back-up tapes or recovering emails requested by Congress. Despite IRS Commissioner John Koskinen repeatedly saying under oath in previous hearings that Lerner’s emails could not be recovered, Camus and investigators have been successful in recovering nearly 33,000 emails relevant to the IRS investigation.”
If this administration had not lied so many times in the past, you could give it the benefit of the doubt and assume the emails were lost due to incompetence. However, it is becoming pretty obvious that this administration has stonewalled Congress in its attempt to find out if there was massive government, IRS, and White House abuse of First Amendment rights of political opponents. Lies, criminal activity by government officials, and shredding of the Constitution, insanity at the highest levels of government and Washington's political class.
2) If you work in the private sector and sexually harass 17 women, there is no doubt you would no longer have a job. If you work in the private sector and watch pornography on company computers and company time, there is no doubt you would no longer have a job. In both instances, you might also be in jail.
Which makes working for the Federal government so cool in that you can harass upwards of 17 women and view pornography on the job and not get fired. In fact, you might even get promoted. According to recent Congressional committee testimony, despite the sexual harassment of many women, one EPA government official was actually promoted despite at least 17 females employees' sexual harassment claims beginning as early as 2009. EPA rules require employment termination after just two sexual harassment claims but apparently that is more a guideline than a hard and fast principle.
Another two EPA employees were caught watching porn and but were only put on paid leave. One eventually retired but still received the full benefits as if nothing had happened.
"It is well past time someone is held accountable for these management failings," said Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah. "We have a duty and obligation to the American taxpayer to fire the people who are abusing the system." Elijah Cummings, the committee's top Democrat, was equally critical: "There is no doubt that these employees should have been fired," the Maryland congressman said.
Another two EPA employees were caught watching porn and but were only put on paid leave. One eventually retired but still received the full benefits as if nothing had happened.
"It is well past time someone is held accountable for these management failings," said Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah. "We have a duty and obligation to the American taxpayer to fire the people who are abusing the system." Elijah Cummings, the committee's top Democrat, was equally critical: "There is no doubt that these employees should have been fired," the Maryland congressman said.
Nice work if you can get it, high pay to watch porn and harass some female co-workers without fear of any retribution.
3) Let’s get back to the Obama promise that his administration would be the most transparent ever, a claim that has been proven wrong so many times. Recall from past discussions that the Veterans Administration (VA) is a highly dysfunctional organization, paying its executives high pay and high bonuses while veterans died and suffered from not getting the medical support they had been promised.
This scandal eventually blew up with the head of the VA being fired and Obama and Congress promising to shake things up for the better for our vets. Well, maybe Congress did. According to a recent Washington Examiner article by Luke Rosiak, a Veterans Affairs hospital threatened its staff members with a $20,000 fine if they became whistle blowers for VA misdoings.
This latest VA scandal was at the Veteran's Affairs Caribbean Healthcare System where upper level executives began threatening employees who leak information to outsiders with a $20,000 fine. Not only that, they tried to pressure the Office of the Inspector General to identify hospital workers who previously leaked documents showing evidence of widespread wrongdoing in the facility.
The cause for the alarm is likely connected to at least two recent instances of bad behavior on the part of the hospital. First, a patient at the facility recently died after a doctor performed an unnecessary procedure without authorization from the primary physician. The doctor also allowed his wife, a medical trainee who he was supervising, to participate in the procedure to get experience in it.
Second, the hospital's director, DeWayne Hamlin, had been arrested in Florida with painkillers in his possession and tried to have a low-level employee fired after that employee whistle blew the situation to supervisors in Washington. When an investigator said her review found that the whistle blower did nothing wrong, Hamlin then ordered that the investigator be fired.
So much for the “most transparent” administration ever, it is an administration that goes after whistle blowers like no others before it.
4) I love it when politicians think we are so stupid that we will believe anything they say, even when they say they never said it in the first place. As most people know, there have been riots going on over the past week over the death of a young African American who was in police custody.
At the onset of the riot situation, the mayor of Baltimore was videotaped at a news conference saying that she was going to give rioters “space to destroy.” Well, that statement was taken a green light to act unlawfully, violently, and without fear of reprisal by the rioters, resulting in billions of dollars worth of property damage, injured civilians, and police officers, and a total disrespect for the rule of law.
A few days later, the same mayor said she never said that she was going to give rioters the “space to destroy.” Is she that dense that she forgot what she said a few days ago on video or does she think we are that dumb that we do not realize what she said a few days ago? In either case, it is pure insanity that this woman is in charge of a major U.S. city.
To say her conflicting claims, go to the 4:00 mark of the following video clip:
http://dailyheadlines.net/2015/04/baltimore-mayor-backtracks-she-did-not-saygive-those-who-wish-to-destroy-space-to-do-that/
5) One last piece of insanity for today. According to a recent article by Bloomberg that was summarized in the April 17, 2015 issue of The Week magazine:
5) One last piece of insanity for today. According to a recent article by Bloomberg that was summarized in the April 17, 2015 issue of The Week magazine:
- Average American household income fell by almost 1% in 2014.
- The average household income of the bottom fifth of the nation;s earners fell by 3.5%.
- The average income of the wealthiest 1% rose by almost 1% in 2014.
What I am saying is that we continue to be served by the most economically ignorant set of politicians ever who cannot and have not put forth coherent economic policies to grow the economy and provide good earning opportunities for 99% of the American households.
So what insanity did we learn of today:
- If you work for the Federal government, it is okay to lie to Congress.
- If you work for the Federal government is is okay to harass women and watch porn on the job.
- If you work for the Federal government it is okay to harass and threaten whistle blowers even though it is against the law.
- If you are a politician it is okay to pull a Star Wars mind trick on Americans, adapting the movie phrase, “These are not the droids you are looking for” to “That is not the quote I said just two days ago.”
- And if you are a Washington politician, economic experience, common sense, and training is obviously not a required skill of the job, given how poorly Washington manages the nation;s economic affairs.
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.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w
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