July, 2016, Part 1, Political Class Insanity: Arming The Bureaucracy, Overstating A Congressman's Value, 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. In fact, last month we set a record, needing ten full posts to cover it all.

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.

It looks like our politicians have been especially insane over the past month or so let’s get started with the latest insanity from today’s American politicians one day earlier than we usually do:

1) According to a recent report from the Washington Post, that was summarized in the June 24, 2016 issue of The Week magazine, in 2013, 99% of ALL Federal government workers received a performance rating of at or above fully successful. This was based on a compilation of performance reviews. The Government Accountability Office looked at 1.2 million Federal civil servants ratings and found that less than 1% of these Federal employees were rated “minimally successful” or “unacceptable” at their jobs.

Where to start with this insanity? No human endeavor EVER had such good staffs that 99% of that staff was so outstanding in the performance of their work. No one has a human based group where nearly everyone in that group is so near perfect. Given how poorly the Federal government performs, I would contend that these numbers are reversed, maybe, maybe 1% of Federal employees do their job in an outstanding manner. 

This is just another example of where politicians and the Federal government employees they oversee have no accountability in their their jobs. No matter how poorly they perform their jobs, whether sitting in Congress, the White House, or a government bureaucracy, you will get paid and paid well and never experience any accountability in how good or how poor their job performance is.

2) According to a recent article by Time.com, American total wealth has now reached a record high $88.1 TRILLION. While this would seem like good news, consider the reality that when Obama leaves office, he would have doubled the national debt to about $20 TRILLION. That means to pay off the national debt, every American family on average would have to give up about 22% of their TOTAL wealth to pay off that debt. 22%, more than one fifth. 

And since the debt is growing faster than the economy, you can be sure that the 22% figure will rise substantially in the coming years. This is the sad legacy that we are leaving our kids and grandkids, a sad legacy that was doubled under Obama. 

3) One would expect certain parts of the Federal government to allow some of their employees to carry weapons and be trained in the use of guns. The DEA, the FBI, the Secret Service, U.S. Marshals, and maybe a few others can rationally be expected to possibly need firearms in the execution of their duties. No big deal.

But a recent report from Philip Hodges on June 24, 2016 tells us that there are some other parts of the Federal government that somehow think they need to use taxpayer money to arm their employees also:

- According to the report, some unexpected Federal bureaucracies possess more weapons than the U.S.Marines.

- Apparently, the IRS, the Social Security Administration, the EPA, the Department of Education (DOE), and even the United States Postal Service (USPS) has armed some of its employees.

- The Washington Free Beacon, reporting on the results of a study by the watchdog group, Open The Books, found the following atrocities:

• Civilian agencies of the Federal government has spent an amazing $1.48 BILLION on weapons, ammo, and military style equipment between 2006 and 2014.
• As an example of the insanity, the IRS has outfitted some of its agents with AR-15 rifles and EPA employees have access to camouflage outfits.
• The Food and Drug administration has 183 armed “special Agents,” 50% more than what it had ten years ago.
• Some Health and Human Services inspector general employees have been trained with very sophisticated weapons by the same consultants that train the Pentagon’s special forces troops.
• Open The Books’ analysis determined that the Federal government now has 200,000 non-military officers with arrest and gun authority, a number that is larger than the current size of the U.S. Marine Corps which has 182,100 Marines in its ranks.
• The IRS has purchased such weapons as pump-action and semi-automatic shotguns, semi-automatic Smith & Wesson M&P15s, and Heckler & Koch H&K 416 rifles, which can be loaded with 30-round magazines.
• The EPA spent $3.1 million on guns, ammo, and equipment, including drones, night vision, “camouflage and other deceptive equipment,” and body armor.

Unbelievable. As many in Congress and the political class are trying to shred the Second Amendment and disarm Americans at the same time they are taking taxpayer money to provide weapons to civilian Federal employees. Why does a Department of Education need armed employees to collect on delinquent student loans? Why does the Social Security Administration need armed employees to go after 80 year old retirees for some reason? Does the IRS need agents armed with 30 round magazines to go after someone who did not pay their taxes on time? 

I am sure that occasionally these outfits my need some protection in the executing of their jobs. But we do not need 200,000 Federal employees armed to the teeth. It is amazing that civilians have not been accidentally killed with 200,000 armed Federal employees wandering around. On the surface, this is a tremendous and huge waste of taxpayer money. 

Deeper down, this has the potential for creating a national police force under the control of Washington bureaucrats, people who have seldom had our best interests and freedoms at the top of their priorities. The word Gestapo comes to mind but that is probably just an overblown paranoid concern. But I bet a lot of Germans thought the same thing at one point in time when they were being disarmed while a national police force was being formed. More insane things have come out of the American political class.

4) Most Americans, as measured by opinion polls, usually have a pessimistic view of where the country is today and what the trends into the future are:

• Real unemployment is still close to 10%. 
• The national debt has almost doubled since Obama came into office.
• Wages and household income levels have been stagnant or negative six years after the recession ended.
• 45 million Americans still need Federal food assistance every month.
• Taxes are still high with little benefit in return.
• Domestic terrorist attacks have been trending upwards over the past 18 months or so.
• Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are hurtling towards insolvency.
• Our kids are still being under educated vs, kids in most other countries despite the high cost of education in this country.
• Our borders still leak and are insecure.
• The war on drugs is still being lost.
• The country’s infrastructure is collapsing despite high levels of taxation.

We could go on and on but you get the idea. The country is being run by inept politicians and bureaucrats, the results speak for themselves.

Which makes the recent demand from a Florida Congressman so insane. According to Natalie Johnson, writing for the Washington Free Beacon on June 9, 2016, Congressman Alcee Hastings recently complained that members of Congress deserve a pay raise, despite their dismal performance as outlined above. The Congressman complained that he has to pay high rent to live in Washington D.C. and that should be reason enough for him and his peers to get a pay raise. 

Keep in mind that an average salary for a Congressman is about $174,000, which is about three and half times the average American household income level. While I have no doubt that it is expensive to live in Washington D.C., I doubt it is three and half times more expensive to live in D.C. than in an average American location. And yet, the Congressman still thinks that he deserves a pay increase: “[Congressional] Members deserve to be paid, staff deserves to be paid and the cost of living here is causing serious problems for people who are not wealthy to serve in this institution,” he said during a Rules Committee hearing on the upcoming appropriations bill. “We aren’t being paid properly.”

Excuse Mr. Hastings, based on your performance and the overall performance of your peers, you are lucky you are getting paid at all. There is no aspect of the Federal government and bureaucracy that is operating efficiently, effectively, and creating value for taxpayers. In the real world, outside of government jobs, you would have been fired for incompetence and non-productivity, based on the list above.

That’s a good start for this month’s insanity. A Congressman who vastly overstates his value, a dangerously armed Federal bureaucracy, a dangerously growing national debt level, and overrating just about every Federal employee. 

And this is just the start of the insanity.

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 Political Leaders Today: Corrupt, Convicted, Inept, Ignorant, and Elitist

We have often discussed the reality that today’s American politicians do and say the darndest things. In fact, if you enter “darndest things” in the search box above, you will get a list of the dozens and dozens of times that today’s politicians embarrassed themselves, us, and the country as a whole.

Today, we will update some of their hijinx, quotes, and law breaking with a wide range of ways that the political class continues to fail us every day of every year. 

1) Kelly Cohen, writing on June 21, 2016 for the Washington Examiner, starts us off today with the recent news that Congressman Chaka Fattah was found guilty in his recent corruption trial. Details of his crimes include the following:

• He was found guilty of ALL of the Federal corruption charges that were brought forth on him.
• These charges included bribery, racketeering, conspiracy, money laundering and bank fraud stemming from efforts to repay an illegal $1 million campaign loan.
• Three of his political cronies, including his once chief of staff, were also convicted under the racketeering RICO Act.
• Two political consultants of the Congressman previously pled guilty to the charges.
• The Federal prosecutors argued that Fattah used Federal grant money and charitable donations to pay back the illegal campaign loan.
• Fattah once sat on the powerful House of Representatives Appropriations Committee.

This guy was earning over $174,000 a year, more than three times what the average American household earns, and he still could not keep his nose clean. So now, rather than continuing to get wealthy on the taxpayers’ back, he will now be in jail on the same taxpayers back. This is the quality of many people currently serving in the political class. At least this one got caught.

P.S.: Fattah’s son, Chaka “Chip” Fattah, was found guilty in 2015 of 22 counts of defrauding a school district and is now serving five years in prison.

2) But it is not only politicians that go to jail for getting greedy. According to Kosar, writing for the Political Insider website, the former head of the Veterans Administration in the Cleveland area was found guilty recently and will be going off to prison also:

• William Montague once was the head of the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center.
• He was recently sentenced after pleading guilty two years ago to 64 corruption related accusations.
• Specifically, he pled guilty to defrauding the VA via bribery and kickback arrangements where he got thousands of kickback dollars from contractors.
• Apparently, he handed over insider information to outside contractors that helped them win large VA contracts for which they gave him thousands of dollars.
• He was part of an FBI investigation that involved over 60 government employees and executives and outside contractors, all of whom were involved in a so-called “pay-to-play” setup.

Maybe he and former Congressman Fattah can share a cell somewhere in a Federal prison.

3) But it is not just Federal employees and politicians that are corrupt, criminal, and greedy. According to Brent Scher, writing for the Washington Free Beacon on June 20, 2016, New York City and its mayor, Bill de Blasio, have found themselves deep into a government corruption investigation:

• The New York Post recently reported that Federal authorities arrested a bunch of New York City folks linked to de Blasio’s fund raising operations when he successfully ran for mayor of New York City.
• The arrests included four, high ranking NYPD police officers and a Jeremey Reichberg, a friend and political operative of de Blasio, who allegedly gave high ranking police officers expensive, lavish gifts.
• These gifts were allegedly in return for having police serve on security details and police escorts.
• Jona Rechnitz, a New York businessman who also allegedly gave gifts to high ranking NYPD officials, has already pleaded guilty to corruption charges and is cooperating with the investigators.
• Federal authorities are still “probing into the mayor’s fundraising practices and some of his closest confidantes in an effort to find out if favors, contracts, or positions were offered for campaign donations,” according to the New York Post report.

As you can see, political corruption in this country extends from local to national corruption.

4) But those in the political class also do and say just plain stupid stuff that does not cross the line of being illegal. Take the recent screw up and follow up quote form Loretta Lynch and the Justice Department and FBI. As everyone knows, a Florida resident recently invaded and committed the heinous terrorist act of shooting up an Orlando nightclub, killing and wounding dozens of innocent Americans.

News reports indicated that his wife was heavily involved since she may have helped him case out other targets and pleaded with him not to do the attack even though she never reported the planned attack to authorities. Thus, she is a pretty important person in the investigation, either as a possible co-conspirator or as a material witness. You would have hoped that the FBI and Federal government would have kept her in custody or at least under surveillance given how close she was to the whole terrorist attack.

But as with most aspects of dealing with the political class and the government functions they oversee, hope is usually dashed by ineptness. When asked where the wife of the terrorist shooter was, Ms. Lynch had this wonderful comment: “Right now I do not know exactly the answer to that, I believe she was going to travel but I do not know exactly her location now.” Unbelievable. 

The worst mass shooting in the history of the country and the most critical witness to the whole planning of the operation has been lost by the Federal government. For all we know, she has snuck out of the country already, especially if this terrorist operation was orchestrated from afar and was not a lone wolf attack. All the chief law enforcement officer in the entire country can basically say is, “we lost her.” Certainly a memorable quote for Ms. Lynch’s legacy but not a good one.

5) In any argument in any area of life, one would hope that both sides of the argument are dealing with basic truths and knowledge. Opinions can certainly differ but to have a mature and constructive conversation and follow up action plan, both sides should agree on basic realities of life. For example, if the two sides in an argument cannot agree that two plus two is four, any discussion of higher level math and statistics is futile.

Which brings us to a recent inane quote from President Obama. Obviously, Obama would like to shred the Second Amendment if he could. Since the Constitution prevents him from doing that outright, he and other liberals nibble around the edges of the Second Amendment, trying to restrict gun possession and usage as much as possible. That is obviously their right to do but they should at least know the two plus two of guns. Otherwise, they show their ignorance of the subject and ignorance never leads to constructive debate and arguments.

Consider a recent Obama gun control quote where he undermines his entire credibility to have an intelligent debate on gun control Referring to the recent terrorist shooter at the Orlando nightclub, Obama recently said that the shooter had “a Glock, which had a lot of clips in it.” Why is this Obama’s two plus two equals three moment? Consider:

• A Glock does not use clips, it uses magazines.
• Every handgun in the world can only hold on magazine at a time.
• Thus, the Orlando shooter’s gun could not possibly hold multiple clips at the same time.

Consider the following education on what a clip is and what a magazine is from www.gunsandammo.com:

Clip vs. Magazine

You know that boxy rectangular thingy that holds cartridges and slides into the bottom of your semi-auto pistol? It’s not a clip — no matter how often the term is misused. It’s a magazine.

A magazine holds shells under spring pressure in preparation for feeding into the firearm’s chamber. Examples include box, tubular, drum and rotary magazines. Some are fixed to the firearm while others are removable.

A cartridge “clip” has no spring and does not feed shells directly into the chamber. Rather, clips hold cartridges in the correct sequence for “charging” a specific firearm’s magazine. Stripper clips allow rounds to be “stripped” into the magazine. Other types are fed along with the shells into the magazine — the M1 Garand famously operates in this fashion. Once all rounds have been fired, the clip is ejected or otherwise released from the firearm.

In essence, clips feed magazines. Magazines feed firearms.

Difficult to have an intelligent conversation about gun control with anyone, including the President, when that person is so ignorant of what they are arguing about.

6) Last inane quote for today comes from a sitting U.S. Congressman. Charles Rangel has been in Congress for a long time. We have discussed some of his inane and stupid quotes many times in this blog. But his latest one is a real doozy. 

When recently asked if his constituents should be able to legally obtain a gun more easily in New York City which has notoriously difficult processes for law abiding citizens to get a legal firearm, Rangel said: “I’m glad to you say that very few people can get it. We don’t need that many guns … Overall if it’s difficult to get a concealed weapon permit, I’m glad to hear that.”

When the reporter pointed out to Rangel that his personal safety as a Congressman was guaranteed by the armed security and police that protect him and his peers, he flippantly replied: “Well, that’s a little different. I think we deserve, I think we need to be protected down here.” So he “deserves” to be protected, despite the crappy job that he and his Congressional peers do, but he is glad to hear that regular Americans have a hard time get their own protection. Nothing says elitism like my life is more important than yours.

There you have it, a quick snapshot of the political class today: corrupt, convicted, inept, ignorant, and elitist. That is who is leading the country today. Feeling confident about the future?

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:


http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

Fighting Islamic Terrorism In the Wake Of Orlando, Part 3 - The Diplomatic, Humanitarian Solution

A few days ago we took some time to discuss the terrorist attack at a nightclub in Orlando a few weekends ago. We listed out a number of steps that needed to be taken in the short term, and extending into the long term, that would help prevent similar attacks in the future. These steps required extensive effort on behalf of the government and the Washington political class, something that neither has had the will or ability to do in the past. 

Instead, we get people like Obama and other liberals inside and outside of government that, as always, go to the knee jerk reaction of limiting Americans access to guns. As we pointed out yesterday, the 9-11 attackers did not storm the Twin Towers with AR 15 rifles, they used airplanes to carry their terror plans. The Boston Marathon bombers did not jump into a crowd in Boston and start shooting up the place, they used homemade bombs. Other terrorists here and around the world have used simple knives to kill in the name of radical Islamic terror.

We also pointed out that if a person wanted to carry out a terror attack, any new gun control laws passed by Washington would be nothing more than an inconvenience, if anyone wants a gun in this country, the drug cartels or other organized, and unorganized, criminal entity would be more than willing to make a few bucks by providing such weapons and guns. That is why the many suggestions we provided yesterday to attack the root causes of terrorism are far more important and more likely to be effective than window dressing gun control restrictions.

However, there has to be an overarching strategy to eliminate the terror threat from ISIS long term. While our suggestions from a few days ago would go a long way to help protecting us, a long term strategy to settle down the violence and hatred in the Middle East is required at the highest levels of diplomacy. That is where Obama needs to be concentrating as his Presidency winds down, putting together a long term plan, strategy, and way of life that brings all of the diplomatic players together in a grand coalition and effort that finally eliminates the root cause of the ISIS terror reign.

However, since he seems more interested in changing national bathroom policies, hosting Super Bowl teams at the White House, and hiking around a national park out west, two days ago we started the discussion on what the grand plan might look like, why it would work and how each interested party would have to give a little to get a lot, i.e. the end of the ISIS threat. To that end, we laid out the situational analysis on the ground in the Middle East, focusing on Syria, and what assumptions would go into formulating this overarching strategy.

In proposing this solution and plan, we realize that we are not trained diplomats. We have never held elected office. But we do realize that to have a final plan in any facet of life, you have to have at least a preliminary plan that is tweaked, negotiated, adjusted over time, etc. And since Obama, John Kerry, et al do not appear to have the will or have the ability to develop a plan, they are more than free to start with ours, as laid out below.

As we see it, and as we laid it out two days ago, there are nine major players involved in the mess in Syria with ISIS:

1. ISIS - the most ruthless, heartless, and well financed Islamic terror group ever, currently dominating large parts of Syria and Iraq, composed mostly of Sunni Muslims.
2. The United States - because we stick our noses into everything and the rise of ISIS was facilitated by the Obama administration.
3. Syria - or what is left of it, headed up by Assad, a Shiite Muslim.
4. Russia - an ally of Assad.
5. Iran - a Shiite dominated country and ally of Assad.
6. Iraq - a Shiite dominated country and an ally of Assad and Iran.
7. Turkey - bordering Syria, anti-Assad, and an ISIS sympathizer.
8. Saudi Arabia - and other Sunni Muslim Gulf states who are at least ISIS sympathizers.
9. Kurds - Anti-ISIS fighters with the majority of Kurds living in northern Iraq and who want their own country.

Each of these nine players have to be an important piece of the final solution, a solution that gives everyone of them something but gives none of them everything.

The overarching strategy and sequence of events goes as follows:

• A multi-national coalition of military forces is created with the sole purpose of defeating and dismantling ISIS, similar to what the first Bush presidency put together to free Kuwait from Iraq 25 years ago.
• Part of this military effort involves creating a safe zone for refugees in northern Iraq and eastern Syria, currently occupied by ISIS.
• This safe zone would expand as ISIS is pushed back from its current borders.
• As the safe zone is expanding, the United Nations steps in, with financing from every other country, to provide shelter and food and to start the reconstruction process. 
• Once ISIS is defeated militarily, a new country is created out of the northern part of Iraq and eastern part of Syria and run by Sunni Muslims.
• Assad is allowed to stay in power in Syria but with a greatly reduced country that is Shiite dominated.
• Russia would still have access to the Syrian ports that they crave.
• Iran, Russia, and Iraq are allowed to build a Shiite pipeline for their oil and natural gas through whatever part of what used to be Syria they want.
• The Saudis and other Sunni Gulf nations are also allowed to build a Sunni pipeline for their oil and natural gas through whatever part of what used to be Syria they want.
• A to-be-determined tariff would be placed on any oil and natural gas that flows through either pipeline and be used to help rebuild the cities and infrastructure in both the new Sunni nation and parts of old Iraq that were destroyed by the ISIS fight.
• As reward for helping to fight ISIS, the Kurds would have their own country carved out of territory in northern Iraq.
• As all of this is going on, the new Sunni nation would be a United Nations protectorate as it regains its ability to be a functioning government and society.
• Free passage back to the area would be provided for all refugees that fled the civil war and the ISIS terrorist group.

Okay, who wins and who loses under a diplomatic coup like this:

- ISIS is a big loser since it no longer exists with most, if not all, of its fighters and leaders killed or put on trial for crimes against humanity.

- The United States reengages militarily in the Middle East, historically not a good thing, costing America more money and lives. But its military mission would be focused solely on the defeat of ISIS and the short term protection of this new Sunni nation until a United Nations military force takes over permanently. In return, the U.S. lessens its refugee problem and associated costs, freeing up these costs to boost our homeland security, and reducing the threat of domestic and foreign terrorism on our shores. In addition, it helps destroy the ISIS terrorist organization that it had helped create.

- Assad gets to stay alive and in power but with a greatly reduced nation, territory, and power but the threat of ISIS on his remaining power and territory eliminated.

- Russia still has an ally, Assad in power even if the size of his country is greatly reduced, and still has access to the Syrian ports, but would have to face the reality that the Saudis and other Gulf Sunni nations do get their own pipeline for their oil and natural gas resources.

- Iran gets to keep their Shiite ally, Assad, in power, they get their Shiite pipeline through Syria but their pipeline has to pay a tariff to help finance the reconstruction of the devastated areas in the new Sunni nation and Iraq and they also have to compete with the Sunni pipeline.

- Iraq gets to keep their Shiite ally, Assad in power, they get rid of ISIS which has been terrorizing the country for years, they get a Shiite pipeline through Syria but their pipeline has to pay a tariff to help finance the reconstruction of the devastated areas in the new Sunni nation and Iraq and they also have to compete with the Sunni pipeline.

- Turkey gets to help create a Sunni friendly nation on its borders vs. having Assad’s Syria on its border but has to contend with a new nation on its other border that was created for the hated Kurds. Obviously, something else on the positive side of the ledger would have to be thrown in to get their support.

- The Saudis and other Sunni Gulf nations get to see the power of their arch enemy Assad greatly reduced and get to build their Sunni pipeline through Syria but but their pipeline has to pay a tariff to help finance the reconstruction of the devastated areas in the new Sunni nation and Iraq and they also have to compete with the Shiite pipeline.

- The Kurds get their own country but lose any oil industry subsidies they were receiving by being a part of Iraq, they would have to accept Kurd immigrants from any other country, and would have stringent conditions imposed on them to discourage any Kurd terrorists attacks within Turkey as what has happened in the past.

As you can see, in our proposed solution, every player gets something they want but also gets things they do not want or things that they cannot have. That is the art of negotiation and diplomacy. You get your own pipeline but your enemy/competitor also gets a pipeline. You get to stay in power but in power over a greatly reduced territory. As you can see above, everyone of the players gets something positive but we have highlighted the BUT in all of their arrangements, meaning they did not get everything. But everyone gets the elimination of ISIS which makes the world a much safer place to be.

This solution also provides a wonderful opportunity for the United Nations to prove that it is a viable and positive organization for humanity. I do not think I can remember anytime in my life when the United Nations was so impotent and so unnecessary in the face of a dangerous world. 

If it could become the force that unites the world and starts the rebuilding of societies in war torn Syria and Iraq, providing humanitarian aid, providing safe zones, helping to rebuild whole cities, stationing military forces to help implement the diplomatic solution, it would regain some of its credibility and show it continues to deserve our tax dollars. If it fails, then I really do not see a use for it going forward since I would dare anyone to show me how it justifies its huge budget year in and year out without providing any tangible results.

That’s our proposed plan. You may not like it but at least it’s a plan, which puts us eons ahead of Obama and John Kerry. Our plan can be adjusted, tweaked, implemented in stages and then adjusted some more, it is tangible. Obama and Kerry have nothing that can be started, adjusted, tweaked, or what is tangible. 

But at least we are having public bathroom discussions as a result of the Obama administration. At least the Super Bowl champs, the Denver Broncos, got to visit Obama at the White House. At least the President got to visit our natural parks out west. 

Obama is all about building his narcissistic legacy. What better legacy opportunity than this, to bring peace and harmony to a major cesspool of terror and destruction? Even Jimmy Carter pulled something off like this decades ago when he got Israel and Egypt to play nice together, that effort still lives on today. Succeeding in this effort, with or without our plan, would dwarf this Carter success. 

That is what the President should be working on, not the trivial stuff that gives him photo opportunities at every turn. Give us a plan, Mr. President, any plan is better than no plan.

George S. Patton - "A good solution applied with vigor now is better than a perfect solution applied ten minutes later."

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:


http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

Fighting Islamic Terrorism In the Wake Of Orlando, Part 2 - Situation Analysis and Long Term Resolution Assumptions

Yesterday we took some time to discuss the terrorist attack at a nightclub in Orlando a few weekends ago. We listed out a number of steps that needed to be taken in the short term, and extending into the long term, that would help prevent similar attacks in the future. These steps require extensive effort on behalf of the government and the Washington political class, something that neither has had the will or ability to do in the past. 

Instead, we get people like Obama and other liberals inside and outside of government that, as always, go to the knee jerk reaction of limiting Americans access to guns. As we pointed out yesterday, the 9-11 attackers did not storm the Twin Towers with AR 15 rifles, they used airplanes to carry their terror plans. The Boston Marathon bombers did not jump into a crowd in Boston and start shooting up the place, they used homemade bombs. Other terrorists here and around the world have used simple knives to kill in the name of terror.

We also pointed out that if a person wanted to carry out a terror attack, any new gun control laws passed by Washington would be nothing more than an inconvenience, if anyone wants a gun in this country, the drug cartels or other organized, and unorganized, criminal entity would be more than willing to make a few bucks by providing such weapons and guns. That is why the many suggestions we provided yesterday to attack the root causes of terrorism are far more important and more likely to be effective than window dressing gun control restrictions.

However, there has to be an overarching strategy to eliminate the terror threat from ISIS long term. While our suggestions from yesterday would go a long way to help protecting us, a long term strategy to settle down the violence and hatred in the Middle East is required at the highest levels of diplomacy. That is where Obama needs to be concentrating as his Presidency winds down, putting together a long term plan, strategy, and way of life that brings all of the diplomatic players together in a grand coalition and effort that finally eliminates the root cause of the ISIS terror reign.

However, since he seems more interested in changing national bathroom policies, hosting Super Bowl teams at the White House, and hiking around a national park out west, let us start the discussion today on what the grand plan might look like, why it would work and how each interested party would have to give a little to get a lot, i.e. the end of the ISIS threat.

In proposing this solution and plan, we realize that we are not trained diplomats. We have never held elected office. But we do realize that to have a final plan in any facet of life, you have to have at least a preliminary plan that is tweaked, negotiated, adjusted over time, etc. And since Obama, John Kerry, et al do not appear to have or have the ability to have a plan, they are more than welcome to start with ours.

1) Part One - Situational Analysis: You cannot resolve any problem without defining where you are today. Same thing with a diplomatic problem and hopefully, a diplomatic solution. As I see it, there are nine major players involved in the mess in Syria with ISIS:

1. ISIS - the most ruthless, heartless, and well financed Islamic terror group ever, currently dominating large parts of Syria and Iraq, composed of Sunni Muslims.
2. The United States - because we stick our noses into everything and the rise of ISIS was facilitated by the Obama administration.
3. Syria - or what is left of it, headed up by Assad, a Shiite Muslim.
4. Russia - an ally of Assad.
5. Iran - a Shiite dominated country and ally of Assad.
6. Iraq - a Shiite dominated country and an ally of Assad and Iran.
7. Turkey - bordering Syria, anti-Assad, and an ISIS sympathizer.
8. Saudi Arabia - and other Sunni Muslim Gulf states who are at least ISIS sympathizers if not more.
9. Kurds - Anti-ISIS fighters with the majority of Kurds living in northern Iraq and who want their own country.

Nine different players that can and have had major impacts on the whole Syrian civil war/ISIS rise debacle. But it gets even more confusing when you try to map out visually on how these nine entities interact, resist, or cooperate with each other. The following crude picture tries to capture the multi layers of relationships between these nine players. The red lines indicate when two of these parties are each others’ enemy and the dotted green lines indicate when two of these parties are each others’ allies:

While I am pretty sure that this graph is not comprehensive, you can see that relationships that are mapped out result in some pretty strange results:

• The United States is an enemy of Iran but we have a common enemy in ISIS. 
• The United States is an ally of Turkey who is an ISIS sympathizer
• The United States is an ally of the Saudis which is at least a sympathizer of ISIS.
• The United States and Russia do not get along at all recently but we have a common enemy in ISIS with opposing views of Assad and Syria.

You could go on and on but you get the idea, it is certainly a tangled web of enemies, allies, self interest, and the most important factor, oil and oil pipelines. (note: when I refer to oil in this post I also include natural gas.)

I mention oil for the first time because I believe that oil is a major driver of the entire crisis. One could make the case, which is the assumption that we will going under, that the Sunni Saudis and their Sunni allies would like to get rid of Shiite Assad so that they can build a pipeline for their Sunni oil through Syria. 

Such a pipeline would likely cause an economic disadvantage to the Russian oil industry so Russia would like to keep Assad in power to control any pipeline that goes through Syrian territory and work with the likes of Iran so that if any pipeline is built, it is a Shiite controlled pipeline with Russian support. Keeping Assad in place also gives the Russian military more flexibility in using the geography of Syria as a military port.

Of course there are other subplots going on but I believe oil drives the bulk of the conflict. Given all of the interdependencies, oil wealth and potential oil wealth, the whole Shiite vs. Sunni situation, etc., what is a diplomatic solution that allows each of the nine parties above to walk away with something positive from their diplomatic efforts even if it is not everything they would want? Obviously, everyone trying to get everything from this mess has not resolved this mess.

2) Long Term Resolution Assumptions - We need to make a number of assumptions before laying out the plan:

• ISIS needs to be defeated militarily and dismantled.
• The United Nations needs to be involved and engaged immediately after the defeat of ISIS to provide food, shelter, and help in reestablishing law and order to the ISIS areas.
• All countries will provide humanitarian and financial help after the ISIS defeat along the lines of the Marshall Plan after World War II.
• Refugees will be encouraged to return to their home countries with financial and transportation aid part of the encouragement.
• A United Nations peacekeeping force will be in place until no longer needed to ensure the reconstruction and terms of any diplomatic agreement are met.

Proposed details on what this grand diplomatic solution might look like, given the situation analysis and assumptions listed above will be laid out tomorrow. Included in the analysis will be a detailed look at what each of the nine parties listed above get and what they do not get as a result of the diplomatic solution. 

Hint: everyone gets something good, no one gets all of the good they would like to get.

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:


http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

Fighting Islamic Terrorism In the Wake Of Orlando - Attacking Root Causes Rather Than Each Other

As I am writing this, the country is still trying to recover from the heinous radical Islamic terrorist attack that took the lives of 49 Americans and wounded over 50 at an Orlando nightclub. It was a terrible and tragic event that should never happen anywhere, either in the United States or anywhere in the world. Innocent people out for a good time with friends and family, ending so tragically.

By one documented count, this was the 86th (22 in just the past year and a half) radical Islamic terror attack within this country since 2001. Many of these attacks involved guns but many did not. Nineteen Islamic terrorists did not storm the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001 with AR-15 rifles, they used airplanes as terror weapons. Others have used bombs (e.g. Boston Marathon bombings), others have used knives. The root cause of all of these terror attacks, though, did have one thing in common: radical Islamic tenets and followers.

And thus, to prevent future attacks like Orlando, it is the root cause, radical Islam, that needs to be attacked. It is not lax gun control laws. We have tough gun control laws now and that has not prevented the 86 terror attacks. It is not Christianity, no radical Christian or Christian concept was involved in the 86 terror attacks. It is not domestic oppression of the gay lifestyle in this country, not when homosexuals are being executed, stoned, thrown off the roofs of high buildings in countries where radical Islam is rooted.

Failure to attack the root cause of terrorist attacks in this country will not terminate radical Islamic attacks in this country. Failure to protect ourselves from this root cause will cause more Americans to needlessly die. Denying Americans the ability to defend themselves via the Second Amendment will cause more Americans to needlessly die. 

But as is typical with the Obama administration and liberal politicians, they see the terrorist attack death of over four dozen Americans as not a call to action to attack root causes but a political opportunity to advance their political agendas. In this case, it is the continued pressure and fallacy to make it harder and harder, eventually illegal, for Americans to be gun owners. 

With 86 domestic radical Islamic terrorist attacks since 2001 it is pretty obvious that the Federal government cannot totally stop or protect us from attacks. Banning a single non-automatic rifle, the AR-15, for sale or prohibiting anyone on the No-Fly list from buying a gun or increasing background checks for gun purchasers is just plan out of touch with reality:

• Banning certain drugs did not eliminate access and usage/abuse/addiction of those illegal drugs so thinking that a criminal or terrorist would not get their hands on a gun or a rifle because it is illegal is ridiculous. Under Obama, our borders are wide open and you can be sure that if a demand for illegal weapons exist, the drug cartels or other criminal elements will find a way to fill that need via our leaky southern border.
• Of the 86 terror attacks, no one appears to have purchased a gun AND been on the No-Fly list. Implementing this concept is a solution to a problem that does not exist.
• The Orlando terrorist shooter came under investigation TWICE by the FBI, he was given a government security clearance to work for a government security contractor that involved carrying a gun as part of the job, and he was twice identified to the FBI by a gun shop dealer shortly before the terror attack because he was looking for body armor and bulk ammunition. If the FBI, who was focused on this single individual, could not flag or stop him from attacking innocent Americans, I cannot imagine any enhancements to any background checking process that could match or exceed this kind of FBI scrutiny, which ultimately failed.

Despite these simple logic points, Obama continues to obsess on window dressing gun control measures that leaves the Islamic terrorism root cause intact. If Obama was a real leader looking for real solutions, maybe he would consider taking the following steps and initiatives that might actually work to protect us compared to what he is worried about:

1) The terrorist attack in Orlando involved a single radical Islamic gunmen attacking and shooting over 100 adults before he was stopped even though there was a uniformed police officer on site. Imagine what the carnage would be if that single gunman had attacked a school with hundreds of kids and only a couple of dozen adults. The outcome would be unthinkable.

That is why we repeat our suggestion from our January 18, 2013 blog post that the Federal government immediately establish a budget item of about $7.3 billion to station at least one armed police officer in EVERY American school by September. We saw a preview of how bad this situation could become when a single mentally deranged young adult attacked a school in Newtown, Connecticut. Imagine what a focused, trained radical Islamic terrorist(s) could do by attacking a school.

We had a warning three years ago but Obama and the rest of Washington did nothing to secure our schools. Out calculation back in January, 2013 came up with the following budget:

- Number of schools in the country = 132,183

- Average annual salary of a U.S. police officer =$55,000

- Annual budget required to protect every school = $7.3 billion

Rather than spending billions of dollars to resettle potentially harmful Middle East refugees into this country, why not take those billions of dollars to provide armed security to our schools before it is too late? I know what my priorities would be but it is pretty clear it is not the priority of Obama and the rest of Washington since their kids are likely already protected by armed guards, our kids be damned. 

When a terrorist takes out a school of American kids while we are spending taxpayer money on refugees, that carnage and blood will be squarely on Washington and Obama, despite having been warned of such a nightmare several times beforehand.

2) Over the past seven plus years the Obama administration has been busy launching hundreds of drone attacks in multiple countries throughout the Middle East. This has been a vain attempt to take out terrorists’ leaders since even if successful, other terrorists simply step forward to take the dead leaders’ place. The fact that terror attacks and threats have intensified and become more numerous across the world is a potential indication of how much this military strategy has failed. 

But even worse, while these drone attacks may have killed a few terror leaders, it has also killed hundreds of civilians, including kids, who had nothing to do with terrorism. This reality is most likely fueling a lot of the underlying hate and recruiting ability of radical Islamic terror organizations, the United States seemingly indiscriminate bombing of civilians throughout the Middle East. Maybe Obama needs to reconsider the pros and cons of drone attacks especially in light of bombing and killing kids in many countries. We would not stand for it if our kids were being bombed, bombing other nations’ kids probably has the same effect in those countries.

3) The following seven proposed solutions come from a Heritage Foundation article by Bridget Mudd on June 17 2016. Ms. Mudd starts off with the following strategy steps to combat radical Islamic terrorism:

A. Combat Terrorism Abroad and Deny ISIS Territorial Gains - as long as ISIS has a territorial presence somewhere in the world, they are a tangible, physical entity. This gives them a legitimacy that is highly symbolic. After a number of years under the current Obama strategy, ISIS still maintains a major territorial presence. Ms. Mudd suggests a change to this failed strategy: “ISIS requires a global approach in which the U.S. leads a multipronged, multination effort that seeks to deny ISIS the ability to hold territory. This will disrupt its recruitment of foreign fighters, and will counter its destructive ideology.”

This obviously involves a military solution that Obama has not had the nerve to even propose, never mind implement. If he was a real leader, he would take a cue from the masterful international coalition building that the first President Bush assembled to free Kuwait back in the early 1990s. Instead, he prefers to host Super Bowl winning teams in the White House, play almost 300 rounds of golf, take multiple annual vacations, and pass bathroom guidelines. 

B. Shut Down the Foreign Fighter Pipeline - Part of the military coalition action item we just discussed, if you deny ISIS a physical territory, it becomes a lot tougher for ISIS to recruit fighters and future terrorists since they have no base of operations. This will also require better and more interconnected intelligence work across countries to identify recruits that are both going and coming from ISIS territory.

C. Ensure That the FBI Regularly Shares Information - This step would encourage the FBI to be more sharing of information with state and local police and law enforcement entities.This obviously was not the case in the Orlando shooting where the FBI had a lot of interest in the terrorist shooter but it is unclear what, if any information was shared with local Orlando law enforcement.

D. Expand Active Shooter Threat Training Across the Country - Police training for such terrorism shootings needs to be increased to minimize the damage once an attack is underway. Additionally, the whole hostage situation strategy needs to be re-examined in the light of our now terrorism infested world. Historically, police usually wanted to start a dialog with a hostage taker and go slow since the hostage taker usually wanted something independent of the hostages.

In a terror attack situation, the hostages are what the terrorist wants, that is his end game. Thus, going slow and trying to talk to the terrorist is not going to be fruitful since the terror is the objective, not money, not free transportation out of the country, etc. The Orlando terrorist had a lot of time to go through the crowd and shoot over a hundred people while police gathered outside. This historical strategy of waiting needs to be re-examined and possibly replaced with a quick strike strategy in our new world of terror.

Please note: this is not an attack or criticism of the law enforcement actions in Orlando. I am sure they followed their current protocols and processes. It is only a suggestion thta maybe those protocols need to be reexamined in light of the world we now live in.

E. Community Outreach Remains a Vital Tool - As Ms. Mudd says: “The U.S. should facilitate strong community outreach and policing. Such capabilities are key to building trust in local communities, especially in high risk areas. If the U.S. is to thwart Islamist terrorist attacks successfully, it must do so by putting effective community outreach operations at the tip of the spear.”

F. Maintain Essential Counterterrorism Tools - Legitimate government surveillance programs are also a vital component of U.S. national security and should be allowed to continue. This is a delicate balance of security and freedom and privacy, it does not include the Obama doctrine of collecting massive amounts of electronics communications on every American. It should be a focused, laser like attention to high potential suspects strategy that maintains the Fourth Amendment.

G. Counter Islamist Ideology - The U.S. needs a strong, proactive counterterrorism policy in order to prevent future terrorist attacks like Orlando. There is no such policy today as far as I can see. If it exists, then please, someone explain it to me. The fact that it is not obvious means it either does not exist or it is totally ineffective and useless. ISIS has made great use of social media to recruit and spread their cause. The civilized, non-radical Islamic world needs to do the same thing.

4) Even if we did all of the above steps, we would probably not be successful on a long term basis without a long term strategy for the ISIS problem and geography. What that long term strategy and plan could look like will be a topic of discussion for tomorrow.

As always with American politicians, they do not do their work ahead of time and when a disaster, failure, or attack occurs, they go running around with no plan or intelligence guiding their actions. They immediately revert back to their own personal political agendas, very quickly ignoring what the disaster was, how it could have been prevented and how to prevent it in the future. 

Instead, they come up with simpleton plans for complex problems. And simpleton plans rarely, if ever address the root causes of the problem. The Orlando shooting, and the 85 other radical Islamic attacks over the past 15 years, were not caused by a certain gun, a bad background checking process, or a Christian baker refusing to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple in Oregon. 

It was caused by a radical element within the religion of Islam, that is what needs to be addressed, surrounded, isolated, and neutralized. Failure to recognize that reality and act accordingly is a sure fire way to ensure future attacks and fatalities.

The actions discussed above are what we as a nation and civilization should be working on now, not name calling and personal political agendas, not ineffective knee jerk reactions. Obviously, what Obama and the rest of Washington have been doing is not working, 86 terrorist attacks is more than adequate proof of that.

Solving the big picture, the long term strategy 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:

http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w