Wednesday, February 10, 2016

February, 2016, Part 4, Political Class Insanity: Arming Mexican Drug Cartels, Politicians' Economic Ignorance, and More

It is the beginning of another month which means it is time again to review the latest political class insanity from the American political class. Each month it takes us multiple posts to cover the wasteful spending, incompetent government organizations and employees, government programs that usually make a problem worse than resolving it, inane and idiotic politician comments, etc.

To review past posts on this insanity and idiocy, just click on the first few posts in each month listed to the right of this page. After reviewing just a handful of these insanity posts we think you will agree that we are currently being served by the worst set of American politicians ever to hold office in our entire history.

So let’s get started with the latest insanity:

1) This past week we have touched on a number of items as it relates to our busted immigration system and enforcement. We had a delusional Congresswoman who seems to think that Obama fixed our immigration despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. We discussed how a Texas city councilman had been busted and then confessed to having been a smuggler for illegal immigrants. 

And now comes a report from Breitbart news of a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agent that had been charged with bribery and computer misuse relative to helping illegal immigrants into the country. Officer Julio Trujillo was arrested in Texas for allegedly accepting $3,600 in exchange for illegally extending the visa of one individual and for assisting a second person in getting a visa. Trujillo is accused of misusing a government computer to obtain records from the Department of Homeland Security, Department of State and the FBI in connection with that individual.

If found guilty, he could get up to 15 years on the bribery charge and an additional five years on the computer misuse charge. He could also face up to a $250,000 fine.

But the Breitbart article went on to point out that Officer Trujillo is not alone in his corruption relative to the border since just in 2015 alone:

  • El Paso CBP Officer Lawrence Madrid was arrested for ties to a human smuggling plot.
  • CBP Officer Luis Zavala was convicted of aiding Mexican drug cartel people in moving drugs into the U.S. via his inspection lane on a bridge connecting Mexico to the U.S.
  • Arizona authorities arrested CBP agent Juan Pimentel as he tried to sneak a vehicle loaded with cocaine from the Mexican border to Chicago.
  • Law enforcement authorities arrested CBP agent Joel Luma for his connection with the kidnapping and beheading of a Honduran illegal immigrant related to the Gulf cartel.
So from the President who refuses to act upon illegal sanctuary cities to a delusional Congresswoman to a city council member to border agents, to say our border security processes and systems is at best dysfunctional is probably an accurate evaluation.

2) On a much more serious note, when it comes to border security and the safety of American civilians, the Associated Press reported on January 30, 2016, law authorities arrested more than 50 members of the notorious and ultra-violent Mexican MS13 gang in the Boston area. In 2012, MS-13 became the first and only street gang to be designated by the Federal government as a “transnational criminal organization.”

The 56 gang members were indicted on racketeering conspiracy charges, including charges related to murder, conspiracy to commit murder and attempted murder. Others were also charged with drug trafficking, firearm violations, immigration offenses and fraudulent document charges.

According to the AP report: “The indictment alleges that several of those charged are responsible for the murders of at least five people since 2014 and the attempted murder of at least 14 people. It also alleges that MS-13 members in Massachusetts commit robberies and sell cocaine, heroin and marijuana to pay monthly dues to leaders of MS-13 who are imprisoned in El Salvador. Prosecutors allege that members of MS-13 recruited prospective members — typically 14 or 15 years old — inside local high schools from communities with significant immigrant populations from Central America.”

I would bet that a great many of those arrested were in this country illegally since it is highly unlikely that even our broken border security processes would have allowed all 56 of these violent criminals to enter the country legally. Just another example of a broken Federal government operation. And this law enforcement operation took place thousands of miles from our southern border. Imagine how many other, still unarrested MS-13 members are still operating in other cities between Boston and the Mexican border.

3) One of the truly sad things about today’s American politicians is that very few of them actually worked in the real world of business. They have no idea how to develop and operate within the confines of a realistic budget, how tough it might be sometimes to have enough money to make payroll, how government regulations prevent business people from maximizing their limited time to grow their business and the economy.

Coupling this inexperience with their total ignorance of simple economic concepts and you end up with a situation out in Oakland where political acts are causing a poor community in Oakland to lose one of their few shopping options. In simple business terms, if a line item expense on a company’s financials gets too big, that business has to cut back expenses somewhere else or raise prices. 

If the customer base being served by that business is of a lower income strata then raising prices is out of the question. If expenses cannot be cut for other expenses, that business goes out of business, simple as that.

Simple, but yet too complicated for most politicians. Back to Oakland where the local politicians have raised the minimum wage to $12.55 an hour. As a result, according to reporting by the Heritage Foundation, Walmart decided to close an Oakland store location in a poorer neighborhood because the revenues from that store could not support the higher wages that are now mandated by the local political class. Because of this economic ignorance, the store’s 400 employees, the majority of which are likely local residents, will lose their current Walmart jobs in February and a critical shopping option for this poorer neighborhood is now gone.

So how is not having a job at $12.55 an hour better than having a job at $10 an hour, the current California minimum wage? How is not having a job at $12.55 an hour better than no longer having a good shopping option in your neighborhood? Insanity. 

And even more insane? Oakland Mayor Libby Schaff has been leading statewide efforts to raise the state's overall minimum wage to $15 an hour. If $12.55 results in 400 residents losing their current jobs, how many more jobs and stores will evaporate if the minimum wage goes to $15? Idiocy runs rampant when politicians try to manipulate the basic laws of economics. Those laws cannot be manipulated by anyone. 

And add insult to injury, two nearby Walmarts outside of the Oakland city limits in San Leandro, where the minimum wage is lower will remain open. This is not a coincidence.

4) Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman is the most notorious Mexican drug cartel leader in the world. He is reputed to be a billionaire. He has escaped from a number of different jails in Mexico, the last one that involved his cohorts building a mile long tunnel right into the prison where he was being held. His cartel is rich, deadly, and ruthless.

He was recently recaptured and when Mexican law enforcement authorities searched his hideout property they found a .50 caliber rifle. I have read that a .50 caliber round is powerful enough to bring down a helicopter, it is a very powerful weapon. It is the kind weapon you would not want in the hands of violent drug cartels.

What is really scary and disgusting is that Mexican law enforcement authorities have confirmed that the .50 caliber rifle was part of the illegal, idiotic, and failed Fast and Furious gun running operation. The purpose of this program was supposed to involve allowing Mexican drug cartel people to illegally buy weapons in the U.S., allow those people to take those weapons back into Mexico, track where those weapons traveled to, and apprehend the perpetrators.

Of course, a plan this bad fell apart right away. No weapons got tracked and no one got arrested but those weapons ended up killing at least on U.S. Border Patrol agent and at least dozens of Mexican civilians. And now we find out that at least one of the weapons that the Fast and Furious operation gave to the drug cartels was the .50 caliber rifle that found its way to El Chapo. Yes, we allowed at least one rifle capable of bringing down a helicopter to find its way into the hands of the worst and most vicious drug cartel leader in the world. Insanity.

[Note: in fact, according to Federal law enforcement authorities, of the 2,000 weapons passed through the Fast and Furious program, a whopping 34 of them were .50 caliber rifles].

So what did we learn today from about the worst set of American politicians ever:

  • The Obama administration’s Fast and Furious continues to evolve into an even worst screw up with the news that the most violent drug cartel leader in the world had a weapon in his possession, courtesy of the American taxpayer, that can bring down helicopters.
  • Economic ignorance is still rampant with American politicians.
  • Mexican gangs have infested at least Boston.
  • Border Patrol agents are using the illegal immigrant crisis as a source of second income.

Insanity, lunacy, and idiocy in one post. More of the same tomorrow.


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



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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