April, 2016, Part 1, Political Class Insanity: Congressional Corruption, Chicago's Financial Death Spiral 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, corrupt, 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.

Let’s get started with the latest insanity from today’s American politicians:

1) Whatever you think of Donald Trump’s Presidential run, he does seem to have pissed off everyone in political power in the country. Republican and Democratic power brokers alike seem to be doing everything they can to prevent Trump from becoming President. Which may mean that Trump is a good thing, that he is actually getting close to exposing and attacking the institutional corruption that currently exists in the country today.

Liberty First News recently gave an idea of how insane the whole situation has gotten. Republican affiliated power brokers have already spent over half a BILLION dollars in trying to stop Trump mania, according to a report and analysis from the Center of Public Integrity. According to Carrie Levine from the Center for Public Integrity: “So far, donors have funneled more than $520 million collectively into campaigns and outside groups supporting Republican presidential candidates who have now dropped out — and the primaries are far from over. Only U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Trump remain in the Republican presidential primary, and they’re aggressively courting those who once wrote checks to their opponents. But some GOP megadonors with millions of dollars to spend haven’t selected a new date to the presidential dance. Others are on the arms of their second and third choices."

Half a billion dollars spent and nothing to show for it. How insane have our political processes become that half a billion dollars have gone down the drain and the country is no better off, our politics are still juvenile and useless. No additional drug addicts have been treated, no additional hungry Americans have been fed, no additional homeless Americans have gotten shelter, etc. A bunch of advertising agencies and political consultants are richer but that is it. Such bad priorities.

2) As we have always tried to point out, it is not only the Washington political class that is screwed up and which screws up our lives. Consider how the local political class in Chicago has screwed up the lives of Chicago residents and the city’s future financial demise:

• Fitch Ratings recently downgraded Chicago’s credit rating, moving it closer to “junk” bond status.
• This latest crisis was the result of the state Supreme Court voiding a recent law that tried to boost the two of the city’s pension funds.
• Fitch warned that the city’s credit rating could be further reduced since there is an absence of "a realistic plan that puts the pension funds on an affordable path toward solvency."
• Fitch stated that it believes the state Supreme Court ruling forces the city to continue to fund future promised pension benefits even if the pension funds become insolvent.
• Even worse, the Moody’s rating service has already rated Chicago bonds as junk.
• In total, the city’s four pension plans have a whopping $20 billion in unfunded pension liabilities.
• The city officials warned that two of the pension funds would run out of money within 10 to 13 years.

As the city credit ratings go down, the cost of interest on city bonds goes up which forces the city to raise taxes which drives citizens and businesses out of the city which reduces tax revenue as interest rate costs are going up, and the death spiral is underway. Thus, local politicians from the third largest city in the country also cannot manage a budget, much like their counterparts in Washington who are on track to run up a $20 TRILLION national debt liability in the near future. Insanely incompetent.

3) But not only are our politicians incompetent but they are often criminals. Remember how a Virginia Congressman had so much cash from his criminal activities that he had to store his cash in his freezer? How about the former New Orleans mayor who went to jail for kickbacks and shake downs? And how about the many former Illinois governors that have served jail times for their corruption? 

And now we have another potential crooked politician. Two weeks ago, the House Ethics Committee voted to open an investigation into possible ethical and criminal behavior by current Congresswoman Corrine Brown. Details of the shady behavior include the following:

• There are allegations that the Congresswoman “improperly solicited charitable donations” from a charity that was not actually a charity.
• The so-called charity never obtained official tax exempt status and never filed state or federal income taxes.
• But the so-called charity still raised about $800,000 in donations but in four years issued one $1,000 scholarship.
• Allegedly, an official of the charity withdrew over $140,000 from the charity which were then used for events hosted by or in honor of an unnamed public official, i.e. Congresswoman Brown.
• The Justice Department is now involved in the investigation, never a good sign for an alleged law breaker.

Now, while the Congresswoman is presumed innocent until proven guilty, when a Congressional panel and the Justice Department are investigating you, it cannot be good. And given the political class track record on being criminals and law breakers, it would not be a surprise if Congresswoman Brown was just continuing the tradition of Washington corruption.

4) We have often said that the appearance of a conflict of interest is just as bad as a real conflict of interest. Such is the case that is developing between Hillary Clinton’s crimes, attorney general Loretta Lynch, and this conflict of interest situation. As most people should know, the FBI is investigating a myriad of potential crimes that have been committed by Hillary and Bill Clinton:

• Loretta Lynch will have the final say in whether or not Hillary is indicted, assuming that the FBI recommends an indictment based on their extensive investigation.
• But Lynch used to work for the Washington based international law firm of Hogan & Hartson from 2002 through 2010.
• She was a litigation partner at the firm.
• But one of the firm’s partners was the tax lawyer who filed tax returns for Bill and Hillary Clinton starting in 2004.
• Additionally, the law firm filed a patent trademark request for the Denver-based MX Logic company in 2004, the same MX Logic firm that developed the email encryption program used to manage Hillary’s private and illegal private email system.
• Experts have previously stated that employees of MX Logic could have access to the all of the emails that went through her illegal server.
• Bill Clinton helped Lynch get appointed to her two terms as a U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York.

Thus, Lynch owes an important phase of her life to Bill Clinton, the wife of the very person, Hillary Clinton, that she gets to decide whether or not to indict based on the FBI’s findings and who also was indirectly involved via MX Logic with the very materials that will be part of any indictment. This is all either the appearance of or actual conflict of interest and the honorable and ethical thing for Lynch to do is recuse herself from these proceedings. 

But honorable and ethical behavior is extinct in Washington so you can be sure that this insult to America will likely prove the old saying from Woodrow Wilson: 

An invisible empire has been set up above the forms of democracy.

Want to bet that the “invisible empire” will find a way to protect itself and that the cronies of Washington will allow the insanity of Hilary’s lawlessness to go unpenalized? Insane and so true, unfortunately.

So we are off to another depressing phase of political class insanity. Conflict of interest in Hillary’s world, more Congressional corruption and greed, Chicago’s financial death spiral, and wasting wealth on pointless political farces. Just gettin started, more insanity 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

Fidel Castro Slaps Down Presidnet Obama

Two days ago we discussed the reality that even Obama’s usual allies and supporters in the mainstream media had serious problems with him going to a meaningless baseball game, learning to dance the tango, and playing a round of golf while the carnage in Brussels as a result of the terrorist attacks was still being cleaned up, wounded being treated, and the memories were fresh in everyone’s mind:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2016/03/even-presidents-friends-think-isis-is.html

Yesterday, we discussed the reality that the Obama presidency had failed on so many levels, especially foreign policy, that Forbes magazine saw fit to NOT include the President in its 2016 list of the world’s most influential leaders:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2016/03/how-hope-and-change-became-dysfunction.html

But the foreign policy failures and insults do not stop with these two posts and their examples. While in Cuba on his recent legacy building ego trip, the President did not meet with Fidel Castro, the long time leader of the Cuban nation. The administration spokesperson said that the President would have meet with Fidel if the Cuban leader felt up to it but that meeting never happened, Obama met only with Fidel’s younger brother and current leader of Cuba, Raul.

While the administration tried to paint a very positive, rosy picture on the trip to Cuba, again trying to use the trip as a historical benchmark to burnish Obama’s legacy, Fidel issued a letter shortly after the trip which surely is going to take the President down a notch or two and which really embarrassed him. In street jargon, I would call Fidel’s long epistle a basic “f-you” reproach to President Obama which tried its best, and probably succeeded, in taking a lot of shine off of the President’s ego boost over the trip.

Highlights of the letter include the following:

Castro: “We don’t need the empire (United States) to give us any presents.” In other words, we do not need the United States, we do not need the Obama administration, we do not need Obama’s visits, we are getting along quite fine on our own. Thus, this is a country with a fraction of the wealth, economy, and might of the United States and Castro just gave the President a big slap down.

Castro: Obama’s comments on the trip while in Cuba were “honey-coated” and that Cubans “ran the the risk of having a heart attack on hearing these words from the president of the United States.” In other words, you comments mean nothing to us or me, they are an insult to our intelligence.

Castro: "My modest suggestion is that he [Obama]reflect and doesn’t try to develop theories about Cuban politics.” In other words, mind your own business, you have no idea what we are all about despite your rhetoric.

Castro: “No one should be under the illusion that the people of this noble and selfless country will renounce its glory and its rights, and the spiritual wealth that is has gained with the development of education, science and culture.” In other words, we are good, we do not need your pity and the United States to be a wealthy nation and people, even if that wealth is spiritual and not materialistic.

Castro: “We are capable of producing the food and material wealth that we need with the work and intelligence of our people.” This is another f-you moment in the letter, we do not need you as much as you need Cuba….for your legacy.

Other highlights or lowlights of Castro’s letter included:

• He went over Obama’s speech line by line, doing an analysis and one sided discussion and critique of Obama’s comments as if he was Obama’s English teacher.
• He blasted Obama for seemingly ignoring the demise of native peoples in the US and Cuba, whatever that means.
• He accused the U.S. of helping South Africa get nuclear weapons which I am pretty sure is a false belief.

So, we now have Fidel Castro taking a slap at Obama’s foreign policy. Putin more or less laughs at any of Obama’s foreign policy initiatives since it allowed him to become a world wide factor again both in Europe and the Middle East. The idiot kid running North Korea continues to boast that he will blow up the United States with its nuclear weapons. ISIS has to be laughing at the Obama plan to destroy them since it is well over a year since the administration went after the terror group but it continues to extend its reach and power.

Such a legacy, somehow Obama found a way to make the leader of the strongest country in the world to be irrelevant. Sad.

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

How "Hope and Change" Became "Dysfunction and Surrender"

It is pretty obvious to anyone who follows current events that the Obama administration’s record on foreign affairs has been pretty abysmal:

• It has allowed North Korea and Iran to get much closer to having ICBM capabilities of delivering nuclear weapons a far distance.
• It has allowed Russia to re-establish itself on the world stage, becoming a force against Europe and a force throughout the Middle East.
• It has allowed ISIS to become the most terrifying and wealthiest terrorist force of all time.
• It has constantly failed to lead when it comes to fighting terrorism, with Obama not attending the world summit that occurred as a result of the Paris terror attacks while attending a baseball game, learning to tango, and playing golf as Brussels with still cleaning up the carnage of the latest European terrorist attack.
• When a Middle East summit was called by the White House, leaders of many Middle Eastern countries declined to attend or sent secondary representatives.
• The administration ticked off many, many allies when it came to light that the administration was using the NSA to spy on other countries and their leaders, with the Brazilian prime minister cancelling a Washington state dinner in protest.
• It has more or less created the reality where "our friends do not trust us and our enemies do not fear us."

The infamous list goes on and on. This administration and the President that heads it has failed time after time to be the leader that the world expects from the President of the United States. Just yesterday, we reviewed how this President failed to have ”good optics” in the aftermath of the Brussels terrorist bombings, looking unconcerned and uncaring, attending a meaningless baseball game, learning to dance the tango, and playing golf as body bags were being used and wounded were being cared for as a result of the Brussels bombings.

And to add insult to injury, today we review a recent analysis from Forbes magazine which put together its annual list of the 50 greatest leaders in the world today, leaders from all walks of life, politics, sports, business, show business, etc. The 2016 list reads as follows:

• Jeff Bezos – CEO, Amazon
• Angela Merkel – Chancellor, Germany
• Aung San Suu Kyi – Leader, National League for Democracy
• Pope Francis – Pontiff, Roman Catholic Church
• Tim Cook – CEO, Apple
• John Legend – Recording artist and activist, The Show Me Campaign
• Christiana Figueres – Executive Secretary, UN Framework Convention on Climate Change
• Paul Ryan – Speaker, U.S. House of Representatives
• Ruth Bader Ginsburg – Associate Justice, U.S. Supreme Court
• Sheikh Hasina – Prime Minister, Bangladesh
• Nick Saban – Head football coach, The University of Alabama
• Huateng “Pony” Ma – Chairman and CEO, Tencent
• Sergio Moro – Federal Judge, Brazil
• Bono – Lead singer & Co-Founder, U2 & One
• Stephen Curry & Steve Kerr – Point guard & head coach, Golden State Warriors
• Bryan Stevenson – Founder, Equal Justice Initiative
• Nikki Haley – Governor, South Carolina
• Lin-Manuel Miranda – Composer, lyricist & author, “Hamilton”
• Marvin Ellison – CEO, J.C. Penney
• Reshma Saujani – Founder & CEO, Girls Who Code
• Larry Fink – CEO, BlackRock
• Scott Kelly & Mikhail Kornienko – Crew members, International Space Station
• David Miliband – CEO, International Rescue Committee
• Anna Maria Chávez – CEO, Girl Scouts of the USA
• Carla Hayden – Nominee, Library of Congress
• Maurizio Macri – President, Argentina
• Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors & Opal Tometi – Co-founders, Black Lives Matter
• Chai Jing – Freelance journalist, China
• Moncef Slaoui – Chairman of Vaccines, GlaxoSmithKline
• John Oliver – Host & Executive Producer, “Last Week Tonight”
• Marc Edwards – Professor, Virginia Tech
• Arthur Brooks – President, American Enterprise Institute
• Rosie Batty – Founder, Luke Batty Foundation
• Kristen Griest & Shayne Haver – Rangers, U.S. Army
• Denis Mukwege – Founder, Panzi Hospital
• Christine Legarde – Managing Director, IMF
• Marc Benioff – CEO, Salesforce
• Gina Raimondo – Governor, Rhode Island
• Amina Mohammed – Minister of Environment, Nigeria
• Domenica Lucano – Mayor, Riace, Italy
• Melinda Gates & Susan Desmond-Hellman – Co-chair & CEO, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
• Arvind Kejriwal – Chief Minister, New Delhi
• Jorge Ramos – Journalist, Univision
• Michael Froman – U.S. Trade Representative, Executive Office of the President
• Mina Guli – CEO, Thirst
• Ramón Mendéz – Head of Climate Change Policy, Uruguay
• Bright Simons – President & Founder, Mpedigree
• Justin Trudeau – Prime Minister, Canada
• Clare Rewcastle Brown – Editor & Founder, Sarawak Report
• Tshering Tobgay – Prime Minister, Bhutan

As you see, the list of leaders includes a university football coach but does not include President Obama. It includes a couple of NBA basketball players but does not include President Obama. It includes two governors from two of the smaller states, South Carolina and Rhode Island, but does not include President Obama. It includes a music composer but does not include President Obama.

You get the idea. The head of the most powerful country in the world, the country with the largest economy and largest military, the country that is probably still the single superpower left in the world today, did not make the Forbes list of the top 50 leaders throughout the world in 2016. 

Now, one might question the criteria and analysis that Forbes used to arrive at a list of leaders that omits the President of the United States and that would be a fair question. But consider what Fortune editor Alan Murray explained why he left out the ‘Leader of the Free World’:

“I voted for Barack Obama in 2008 largely because of his call to unite blue states and red states behind a politics of hope. But it hasn’t happened. At home our politics are as divided—and our federal government is as dysfunctional—as they were when he took office.

Abroad, the record is worse. Many wise foreign-policy analysts believe the President’s public waffling on Syria not only fed the terrorism of the Islamic State, but also emboldened thugs around the world— notably Vladimir Putin. The President has dismissed their criticism by saying he is “less concerned about style points.” But when it comes to leadership, style matters...In his book On Becoming a Leader, the late Warren Bennis said the differences between leaders and managers are “the differences between those who master the context and those who surrender to it.” It’s a good distinction. Faced with difficult circumstances, President Obama has surrendered.”

“President Obama has surrendered….the Federal government is as dysfunctional.” Harsh but nevertheless true. Every month in our political class insanity posts we review how dysfunctional the Federal government still is and in fact, is probably more dysfunctional than it was back in 2009 when Obama took office. We listed the foreign affairs blunders up above which Mr. Murray correctly characterizes as surrender on behalf of the President.

The motto of “hope and change” is now been reduced to “dysfunctional and surrender.” So much so, that the leader of the most powerful country in the world might not even make the top 50 of the most influential leaders in the world, regardless of how the selection is made. So sad, just another American political class sham and failure.

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

Even The President's Friends Think ISIS is More Important Than an Exhibition Baseball Game....And Tango Lessons...And Golf

In the past month or so, ISIS has unleashed a number of deadly attacks across the world: 

• In late February, two ISIS bombs killed over 100 Iraqis.
• Dozens of people died in two ISIS-related suicide bombers attacks over the past couple of months in Turkey.
• And this past week, ISIS struck in the heart of Europe in Brussels, with two bombs going off at the airport and one going off in a train car, killing dozens and wounding over a hundred including Americans.

ISIS is on the move, spreading their violent wrath of terror and death across the Middle East and Europe. Innocent people are dying, fear is being spread, ISIS’s influence is growing in multiple countries and this week, President Obama:

• Attended a meaningless baseball game in Cuba immediately after hearing of the death and carnage in Brussels.
• In a political speech in Cuba, spent less than one minute discussing the major terror attacks in Brussels.
• Flew to Argentina where he spent some time learning how to dance the tango as body parts were being cleaned up in Brussels.
• He eventually returned to Washington DC where he decided going golfing would be a good thing to do.

I know I feel like many other Americans when I say that I was disgusted by this lack of compassion and concern of this President. Rather than showing any sympathy and concern immediately after the attacks, he was sitting in a baseball stadium doing the wave and laughing it up with Cuba’s Communist dictator. Despite having the information on the attack, he still allowed himself to be seen learning to dance the tango. Heartless behavior of a human being in my opinion, never mind the President of the United States.

But it is just not me that seems to have a problem with this behavior. His usually loyal political allies in the media and news industry also called him out for his cold heartedness:

- Veteran NBC newsboradcaster Tom Brokaw: “So much of politics and national security is a combination of symbolism and reality,” Brokaw said Wednesday. “The reality is that we did have that attack yesterday. It was unnerving to us, it was devastating in Europe.”

“But at the same time, the symbolism is that the president stayed at the baseball game all day long where you would have thought he would have said, ‘Look, we’ve got more business that I have to deal with, I wish you well,’ get on the phone. We’ve got to put together some kind of a bulletproof syndicate to deal with all this.”

“There’s a real urgency about it, and he has got to convey that, not just to the American people but to the world. I think it was Mike Hayden who said he is the leader of the free world, and this is the time to be the leader because this kind of attack can occur again and again and again.”

“This is the time to be the leader.”

- Democratic strategist David Gergen, speaking on CNN: “I think people now, after all the attacks, we’ve had an attack a day around the world for the last 12 days, but after San Bernardino and Paris and Brussels and Ankara and Istanbul, people are looking for more forceful action to actually drive back ISIS and right now, we’re not winning against ISIS.” 

“When you go to a baseball game, it looks a little frivolous.” When you’re dancing like that. I — I even think the hard call, he should have thought about coming back and gathering — people are looking for leadership here. I thinks that’s a critical issue for him. Restraint does not equal leadership when you’re under attack like this.”

- Co-host of the TV show, “The View,” Jedediah Bila (keep in mind that “the View” is usually a lovefest when it comes to President Obama): “He’s the leader of the free world … I want my president front and saying ‘Islamic extremism is at the root of this. ISIS claimed credit for this, and we are not going to take this. We are going to fight back.'” 

- Co-host of the TV show, “The View,” and CNN legal analyst Sunny Hostin: “Jed and I love each other and we don’t always agree. But when I saw President Obama … I didn’t not like seeing him do the wave in Cuba at a baseball game when Americans were injured and over thirty people were killed. You have to be a little more presidential acting than that because optics really matter.”

- MSNBC (keep in mind that MSNBC has also been an Obama cheerleader since day one of this administration) show host and commentator Chris Matthews: "I grew up in a big city, Philadelphia ... when there was a big fire, you want to see the mayor on the other curb, watching it. You want to see the police chief, standing there, the fire chief, you want to see them standing on the curb. You don't want to hear they phoned it in. The president was off base. He wasn't there. What could he have done better by taking a minute away from a baseball game? He had to do something."

- President of the Council on Foreign Relations, Richard Haas, speaking on MSNBC: “It’s fine to go to Argentina, you want to do the work. But you have to be careful of these, these little photo ops and optics. Baseball games and tangos, that’s inconsistent with the seriousness of the day.” 

When you long term political allies are saying you are not a leader, you are not Presidential, you are not serious, you are frivolous, etc, you know that you really screwed up. 

Maybe the best summary of this less than stellar performance comes from Fox News and Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer, never a fan of Obama, who probably summed up many Americans’ feelings best: “The increasing tempo and sophistication of its operations suggest that it may be poised for a continent-wide guerrilla campaign. In the face of this, Obama remains inert, unmoved, displaying a neglect and insouciance that borders on denial. His non-reaction to the Belgian massacre — his 34-minute speech in Havana devoted 51 seconds to Brussels — left the world as stunned as it was after the Paris massacre, when Obama did nothing.” 

Inert, unmoved, neglectful, non-reactionary, not Presidential. Unfortunately, we have a President who is either uncaring or one who has checked out already in the final year of his term. In either case, the world and the rest of us, including many of his political allies, are constantly disappointed by this President’s lack of compassion and inability to recognize “bad optics.” And in this world of a growing terrorist threat, our safety in his dispassionate or disinterested hands, a very scary proposition.

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

March, 2016, Bonus Post, I Am A Global Warming Doubter and A Believer In Science

Every month we have enough material to return to a continuing theme in this blog, namely that “I am a global warming doubter AND a believer in science.” This became of interest because of people like Al Gore who fanatically and verbosely claimed that you had to be an idiot to not believe in manmade global warming. It has been my life belief that anyone that is that loud and that obnoxious is hiding something, that rather than argue facts and reality it is better to beat down and insult anyone who disagrees.

As we have dove into the whole issue of manmade global warming, or its new rebranded title of climate change, we found that Al Gore and people like him were guilty of a number of things:

• Ignoring science and realities that did not support their opinions and positions.
• Rather than have an adult conversation about climate, these types of advocates like Gore sank to the level of insulting those who dared look at ALL science by calling them a variety of names including racists, homophobes, terrorists, flat earth believers, and other slanderous names.
• Continuing to insist that politicians step up their intrusions into our lives with higher taxes, more regulations, and more control of our freedoms and standards of living based on a shaky theory at best.

To see the past posts and the multitude of evidence that we have compiled that showed it is perfectly okay to be a global warming doubter and a believer in science, enter the phrase "global warming doubter” in the search box above or go through the monthly historical posts listed on the right side of this page. The first post on global warming doubting for this month can be accessed at:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2016/03/march-2016-part-1-i-am-global-warming.html

Thus, let’s see the latest facts and science that prove you can be a global warming doubter and a believer in science, regardless of what Al Gore proclaims:

1) One of the concerns of people that are global warming doubters and believers in science is that some scientists see the whole global warming/climate change issue as a money making, grant getting opportunity. And when this happens, as we have examined in past posts under this theme, the science takes a back seat to getting additional industry and government grants since if global warming was indeed proven to be a myth, there would no longer be any grant money to be found.

According to a March 23, 2016 article by Kevin Mooney, writing for the Heritage Foundation, that may have been the case relative to a George Mason University professor:

• According to the article, the National Science Foundation (NSF) is “seriously” interested in reviewing how millions and millions of taxpayer dollars were spent after they had been awarded to that George Mason University professor. 
• The NSF inspector general is possibly going to examine how professor Jagadish Shukla spent all of those millions.
• This is the same professor who signed a letter with nineteen other other global warming advocates who wanted the President to arrest and prosecute anyone who had a different opinion than them relative to global warming/climate change, you know, rip up the First Amendment rights of innocent Americans.
• One reason for the the potential abuse of taxpayer funds comes from the article’s assertion that: “The federal government is awash in guidelines governing the conduct of recipients of the billions of dollars in grants doled out by Washington every year. But these regulations are loosely enforced, both by government bureaucrats and by the institutions receiving the money.”
• An audit by George Mason University seems to imply that the professor misused tens of millions of taxpayer dollars, not millions, tens of millions of dollars, by “double dipping” in Federal and state funds in violation of university guidelines and rules.
• Professor Shukla is not only a university professor but he also operates the Institute of Global Environment and Society (IGES), a relationship that a Congressional committee has also been investigating.
• Part of the obscenity of the whole deal is that it is possible that Shulka paid himself and his wife a total of $5.6 million in taxpayer funding in connection with his research, an obscene amount no matter how you cut it, using the IGES as a cover story.
• Besides being obscene, it probably violated the conditions of the NSA funding which sets limits on the amount of taxpayer money that can be used for salaries.
• A representative of the the National Center for Public Policy Research stated the obvious in the article: “The longstanding cozy relationship between grant-makers and grantees makes them blind to even the most obvious conflict of interest or incidence of double dipping. And when the government is driving the scientific research to reach a predetermined conclusion, as is the case with climate change, then no one is going to rock the boat…..the system is thoroughly corrupt." 

There you have it from at least one research source. Some, a few, who knows how many are using the global warming story to abort and contort real science to get an answer that they want and that their political benefactors want. Those are the ones abusing science, not global warming doubters who still believe in the purity of science and research.

2) Rick Moran writing for the American Thinker website, described how former Democratic candidate for President, Martin O'Malley, had this great theory, based on nothing, that it was global warming who created the terror group ISIS. Not maybe created it, not maybe created it with other factors involved - like thousands of years of war and animosity between different versions of Islam - or the brutal dictatorship of the Assad family, nope global warming did it all by itself.

Global warming and only global warming created ISIS: "One of the things that preceded the failure of the nation-state of Syria and the rise of ISIS was the effect of climate change and the mega-drought that affected that region, wiped out farmers, drove people to cities, created a humanitarian crisis that created the symptoms — or rather the conditions of extreme poverty — that has now led to the rise of ISIL and this extreme violence.” 

I guess the Middle East has NEVER had a drought before. If it had, ISIS would have formed centuries ago. His statement is based on no research, no scientific findings, just political hogwash. Consider what real scientists have to say about this nonsense: “It is not until you dig pretty deep into the technical scientific literature, that you find out that the anthropogenic climate change impact on drought conditions in the Fertile Crescent is extremely minimal and tenuous—so much so that it is debatable as to whether it is detectable at all,” according to Chip Knappenberger and Patrick Michaels, climate scientists at the libertarian Cato Institute.

It gets so tiring when politicians like O’Malley, Gore, Obama, and others use and abuse science, data, and reality for their own political gains. 

3) Michael Bastasch, writing for the Daily Caller website in early February, described some more real science when it comes to reducing the carbon footprint of the U.S.:

• The Business Council for Sustainable Energy (BCSE) and Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) recently published their annual energy factbook.
• Their major finding was that inexpensive natural gas, as a resulting of fracking, has been a major driver in reducing overall U.S. carbon emissions over the recent past: “Unprecedented levels of natural gas supply pushed down power prices, putting the country in a more internationally competitive position while also prompting coal-to-gas switching that slashed US carbon emissions,” the group’s report reads.
• Furthermore, “U.S. power sector CO2 emissions fell to their lowest annual level since the mid-1990s,” according to the report.
• The report went on to state that they found while green energy sources and improving energy efficiency performance helps, those efforts were near non-existent relative to what natural gas has done to reduce the nation’s carbon footprint.
• This latest study is in agreement with a similar study done by the Manhattan Institute done in 2015 which also concluded that fracking caused the lion’s share of carbon emissions reductions since 2008.
• The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) also conceded that fracking was a primary reason for falling emissions as opposed to green energy policies.

The key point here is that science has created an energy source that is less expensive, less dirty, less carbon heavy, and supports the goal of global warming advocates. Everyone is happy when science is used as it should be like it was in this fracking experience.

That will do it for this quick update to the them, “I am a global warming doubter and a believer in science.”

Science being abused by politicians and those with serious financial stakes in misusing science to prove a preconceived theory, and science being used (fracking) to make life wonderful. When will we have have an adult, mature conversation in this country when ALL of the science is included in the conversation and not just the science that aligns with politicians’ political aims and corruption?

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

March, 2016, Part 2, Politicians SayThe Darndest Things: Hilllary Evoking John Dillinger, Denying Radical Islam and More

Ever so often we run a series of posts under the theme, “Politicians say the darndest things.” It is a parody of an old television show, “House Party,” where host Art Linkletter would ask simple questions of young kids and wait for their often funny responses. This segment of his show was called “Kids Say The Darndest Things.”

Unfortunately when kids say silly or dumb things, it is funny. When politicians say silly or dumb things, there are usually serious ramifications across the land that often involve stupid laws, wasteful spending, self delusion of a politician’s intelligence or abilities, or a continued lack of faith that today’s politicians are smart enough to get anything right.

1) President Obama on terrorists: "We defeat them in part by saying 'you are not strong.'” This was the President’s reaction to many people, both political allies and opponents, when he decided to go out and enjoy a meaningless baseball game in Cuba rather than showing any shred or leadership and taking charge of the U.S. response and reaction to the brutal and fatal ISIS terror bombings in Brussels.

Instead of putting together a real plan to defeat ISIS, the most fearsome, violent and richest terror group to ever exist, and executing this plan, the President has decided to defeat them with verbal sparring. His strategy consist of calling them names, “you are not strong.” 

Seriously, does anyone besides Obama think that ISIS is going to back off because of his opinion and name calling in the absence of a real plan to defeat them? Pathetic leadership and total lack of strategic thinking and planning.

2) Bernie Sanders, Democratic candidate for President, recently tried to convince the world that there are no poor white people in this country when he said: “When you are white, you do not know what it is like to be poor.” As we discussed yesterday, do these politicians really believe the bs they say or do they think we are too stupid to checkout and verify them when they make these global and outrageously wrong statements? 

Because this is a tremendously wrong statement if you look at the numbers and the reality:

• The five poorest counties in the country are all at least 95% white, according to the 2010 Census.
• The nation’s poorest county, Owsley in Kentucky, is 98% white.
• Owsley is only .5% black.
• The second poorest county, Lee county, also in Kentucky, is 95% white and only 2% black.
• Clay county in Kentucky was called the “hardest place to live” in the country by a New York Times article and Clay is 94% white.

Again, are these politicians delusional or pathological liars and deceivers? Never, ever believe what they tell you because they say the darndest things and usually these darndest things are pure fiction.

3) While Obama’s reaction to the latest ISIS attacks were meant with nothing stronger than name calling, as always, the reaction of Secretary of State John Kerry’s reaction to the terror attacks was even more inane: “Today’s abhorrent attacks in Brussels are an assault against the Belgian people and the very heart of Europe. Our thoughts are with all those in Brussels, including the injured and the loved ones of those who were killed, and with the first responders and security personnel who are working tirelessly to keep Brussels safe.

The U.S. Embassy in Brussels is making every effort to account for the welfare of American citizens in the city, and in the days ahead we stand ready to provide whatever support the Belgian Government may require. As I made clear this morning in a conversation with Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders, the United States stands firmly with our ally Belgium and with all of Europe in the face of this tragedy. Attacks like these only deepen our shared resolve to defeat terrorism around the world.”

What is critical here is not what Kerry said but what he did not say:

• He never recognizes the attacks as being planned by ISIS even though ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attacks and almost immediately confirmed that the same ISIS terror cell that executed the Paris terrorist attacks also did the Brussels attacks.
• He never mentions that Islamic radicals planned and executed the attacks that killed dozens and wounded over a hundred innocents.
• He never mentions that these were blatant “terrorist” attacks, he calls them “abhorrent” attacks.

Thus, it is more important to identify what he did NOT say than what he did say. What he did say used mostly sterile boilerplate sentences that could have been lifted from every other State Department reaction to other attacks and tragedies. What it did not say is that this administration again refuses to acknowledge that Islamic radicalism is the real terror threat. 

Failure to face the reality of a problem or issue in any situation usually means that you are incapable of finding a solution to that problem or issue. Such is the case with the Obama administration’s statements and attitudes: failure to believe or identify that radical Islam as the leading cause of terrorism in the world prevent the Obama administration from having any chance of resolving the problem of worldwide terrorism. Just listen to their quotes.

4) One last quote for today and this month. John Dillinger, the famous bank robber from the 1930s,was once asked why he robbed banks. He reportedly answered this question with, “Simple, that is where the money is.” The latest rendition of the same attitude of bank robbers comes from a recent Hillary Clinton quote when she was asked why she accepted $675,000 for three speeches she gave to Goldman Sachs banker audiences: “I don’t know. That’s what they offered.” When you have the same attitude as John Dillinger maybe you should not be President. Especially when you claim that you will be tough on the banking industry but you accept tons of money that they constantly throw at your feet.

Being hypocritical when it comes to getting rich, denying that radical Islam exists, denying that white people can be poor, and trying to defeat terrorism with mean words than real strategies, their quotes prove it all. Delusional or pathological liars? Whatever the cause, these are the same people that control great parts of our lives and their quotes prove that they are so out of touch with reality that we all should be scared, very scared.

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

March, 2016, Part 1, Politicians Say The Darndest Things: Inane Quotes From the Clintons, Obama, and Others

Ever so often we run a series of posts under the theme,“Politicians say the darndest things.” It is a parody of an old television show, “House Party,” where host Art Linkletter would ask simple questions of young kids and wait for their often funny responses. This segment of his show was called “Kids Say The Darndest Things.” 

Unfortunately when kids say silly or dumb things, it is funny. When politicians say silly or dumb things, there are usually serious ramifications across the land that often involve stupid laws, wasteful spending, self delusion of a politician’s intelligence or abilities, or a continued lack of faith that today’s politicians are smart enough to get anything right.

1) Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren recently got into let’s call political opponents names rather than deal with real issues: “Let’s be honest – Donald Trump is a loser.” Yep, rather than deal with problems, issues and resolution of those issues, let’s just further divide Americans by calling someone a loser. 

This is a loser that has been incredibly successful in the business world, so much so that he is a billionaire a number of times over. I would love to see where the bar is for Warren to call someone a winner if billionaire Trump is a loser.

But maybe Warren is the actual loser. A while ago she put out the following statement (keep in mind when reading this statement that Ms. Warren is likely worth over $10 million): “Today my brother lives on his Social Security. That’s about $1,100 a month. $13,200 a year. I’m telling you my brother’s story not because it’s unusual, but because it’s like the story of so many other people. I can almost guarantee that you know someone – a family member, friend, or neighbor – who counts on Social Security checks to get by.” 

She is worth millions of dollars and laments the reality that her brother is getting by only on monthly Social Security checks that get him $1,100. If she was not a loser she would send him a check once in awhile out of her millions of dollars of wealth. That is what a winner does, something that she obviously does not know what the definition is. A loser let’s her brother live on $13,200 when she could easily and without pain lend him a little financial help.

2)  Speaking about being out of touch, consider a recent Hillary Clinton statement: “I think we’ve done a really good job securing the border. I think that those who say we haven’t are not paying attention to what was done the last 15 years under President (George W.) Bush and President (Barack) Obama.” 

Really? Did she not see the chaotic scenes at the Mexican border last summer when thousands and thousands of kids and adults were trying to get through the border defenses? Is she unaware of the many, many “rape trees” along the southern border that arise when smugglers rape female illegal immigrants and hang their under garments on trees? Is she ignorant of the reality that Mexican drug cartels are flooding this country with cheap heroin and smuggling it through the border? Is also unaware that the cartels are using unmanned drones to transport their illegal drugs into the country? 

How unaware can one be? Which raises the perennial question: do politicians even know they are lying when they issue inane comments like this or do they really think that we are that stupid and that lazy that we would not check out these types of sweeping statements? 

To prove we may never get an answer to the question, consider her follow up comment: “Immigration from Mexico has dropped considerably. It’s just not happening anymore.” It’s just not happening? In what reality are Mexican and other south and central Americans NOT trying to sneak into the country? Unbelievable.

3) But sometimes politicians’ comments can be very enjoyable when one politician throws another politician under the proverbial bus. Consider the words of Bill Clinton from the past week: “But if you believe we can all rise together, if you believe we’ve finally come to the point where we can put the awful legacy of the last eight years behind us and the seven years before that where we were practicing trickle-down economics with no regulation in Washington, which is what caused the crash, then you should vote for her.” 

It’s nice that Bill is defending and hyping his wife’s campaign but calling the Obama’s Presidency an “awful legacy” is pretty funny. Seems like a politician will call anyone any name if it is self-serving. But in reality calling someone’s effort an awful legacy also does not contribute to mature and respectful dialog on the issues in this country even if it is theoretically a political ally. No honor among thieves...or politicians.

4) I am pretty sure that a trained psychologist would tell you that a narcissist will not know when he is lying which may explain the following recent comment from the President in a recent interview with NPR: “I will tell you as president, if you’re interested just because you like the title or you like the trappings or you like the power, or the fame, or the celebrity, that side of it wears off pretty quick.” This from a President who:

• Has used Air Force One to travel across the country for several rounds of golf on the west coast.
• Has used Air Force One to transport the First Family dog to their vacation location.
• Has used Air Force One to spend the past seven holiday seasons in Hawaii.
• Has spent over $70 million of taxpayer money just on transportation costs for his family’s vacations.
• Has allowed his family to take vacations on the taxpayers’ dime to exotic locations around the world.
• He has appeared on numerous television shows (e.g. The View, Oprah, and others) that have nothing to do with news or the business of governing the country.
• He filmed a television commercial for a comedian’s, George Lopez, TV show.
• He has appeared on ESPN every March to show the country how smart he was with his March Madness college basketball tournament picks.
• He has been quoted saying that he is seldom the fifth or sixth smartest person in any room he is in, i.e. he is brilliant in whatever crowd he finds himself in.

If anyone wanted to be President for the trappings, power, fame, and celebrity, this President is the poster boy for such self indulgence.

5) As Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton was in charge of foreign affairs when the Obama administration illegally and un-Constitutionally got involved in the Libyan civil war. That ill fated intrusion has resulted in a broken country overrun with different terror groups including ISIS. It has become a breeding ground for launching terror attacks into other parts of northern Africa. Thousands have died as a result of the civil war and resulting chaos including four brave Americans at the U.S. Benghazi consulate.

In any rational person’s mind, America’s intrusion into the Libyan mess has been a disaster. Unless that person is Hillary Clinton: “Is Libya perfect? It isn’t. But did they have two elections that were fair where they voted for moderates? Yes they did. Changing from a dictator that has hollowed out your country to something resembling a functioning state and even hopefully more of a democratic one doesn’t happen overnight.”

Isn’t perfect? Again, what reality does she live in? Libya has ceased to be a functioning country and she says her interference in that country’s internal affairs was not perfect? Well, yeah.

But then she completely steps over the line into another world when she claims that the United States “didn’t lose a single person” in Libya. Huh? What about the four brave Americans who died at the Benghazi consulate in Libya: Ambassador Stevens, Information Officer Sean Smith, and two CIA operatives, Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods, both former Navy SEALs. If not for her and Obama’s illegal meddling in that country’s politics and the refusal to provide enough security for that consulate, both in the months leading up to the attack and the night of the attack, those four Americans would not have died. For her to state that the country did not lose a single person from the Libya fiasco is a disgrace to the memory and families of those four who had died.

Delusional or pathological liars? Whatever the cause, these are the same people that control great parts of our lives and their quotes prove that they are so out of touch with reality that we all should be scared, very scared. More inane quotes 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