February, 2020, Part 1, Political Class Insanity: Lying Politicians, Pompous Politicians and Inept Politicians.

It is another month which means it is again time to review the latest political class insanity from Washington and around the world. Political class insanity takes many forms including the wasting of taxpayer wealth, criminal fraud within government programs, inane and stupid political quotes and actions, the inability to create and implement effective and efficient government programs, stupid and ill performing economic policies and strategies, and other forms of insanity that continue to evolve and surprise and shock us.

Let’s get started:

1) Before going any further on this topic let me say that I realize how horrible it must be to lose a loved one. The pain and grief is overwhelming. And to lose a loved one suddenly is even more gut wrenching since it is unexpected.

So I do not want to come off as uncaring here but it does kind of disgust me that someone would try to leverage the sudden loss of a loved one for political gain:

• In December, 1972, Joe Biden’s wife Neillia and his infant daughter were killed in a tragic car accident.
• The police investigation showed that she had driven into the path of a semi tractor trailer driven by Curtis Dunn.
• Dunn’s truck flipped over trying to avoid the collision.
• The prosecutor in the case concluded that rumors of alcohol use by all involved was unfounded and no charges were brought against Dunn.
• And yet, Biden claimed his wife and child were killed by a drunk driver in both 2001 and 2007 at University of Delaware gatherings.
• Not satisfied to lie/misrepresent facts in 2001 and 2007, in 2008 slandered Dunn and blamed the truck driver’s alcohol drinking for the accident even though there was no factual basis to the claim: “A tractor-trailer, a guy who allegedly — and I never pursued it — drank his lunch instead of eating his lunch, broadsided my family and killed my wife instantly and killed my daughter instantly and hospitalized my two sons …”
• Delaware resident, Pamela Hill, has now demanded a public apology from Biden for slandering the name of her now deceased father.
• Specifically: “We need to set the record straight and clear my father’s name right now before this goes any further.”

So sad that he suffered these sudden loses and so pathetic that he would leverage those losses for political gain and slander an innocent man in the process.

2) Let’s turn to a news article from 2009 by Charles Hurt that I recently came across. Mr. Hunt was writing for the New York Post and gives another example of how politicians like to make rules and also like to ignore them at their whim:

• New York Senator Chuck Schumer was on an airplane flight when a flight attendant asked him to turn off his cell phone as the plane got ready for takeoff.
• Rather than respect the rules, the flight attendant, and the pilot who announced that cell phones had to be turned off, Schumer continued his cellphone discussion.
• Schumer asked if he could finish his conversation but the attendant said no, they were waiting for him to finish his call so the plane could then take off.
• According to the article: “The state’s senior senator ended his call, but then launched into an argument with her, claiming he was entitled to continue his chat until the cabin door was closed.”
• Schumer then called the flight attendant a “bitch” to his traveling partner after the flight attendant walked away for not allowing him special consideration.

Schumer eventually apologized for the comment but only after the press got hold of the story and it spread far and wide, making one doubt whether he was truly sorry or sorry because he got caught behaving like a five year old. Just another example where a politician thinks they are more important than they really are. England has royalty, we do not, despite what the political class thinks so turn off the darn phone and follow the rules like the rest of us.

3) This story raises a troubling issue with two possible answers, neither of which is good: are California politicians and the state government processes they operate that incompetent or they that nefarious that they are involved in a massive financial cover up

The following discussion comes from the Real Politics website and highlights a legal effort they have underway to open up the state government financial books of California:

• According to Real Politics, California is the only state in the union that does not open up its financials and checkbook for review.
• Opening up the state accounting books would provide the ability for outside sources to review and assess how California is spending taxpayer wealth.
• However, when Real Politics submitted a request to get access to the so-called state “checkbook” to see what expenses were being incurred by the state government, state Controller Betty Yee rejected the request.
• While this rejection was against state law, the reason given for the rejection was that the outrageous claim “that the controller couldn’t locate a single one of the 49 million bills she paid last year.”
• And yet Yee claimed that 99.7% of all state paid bills were proper and legit even though she could not provide the information to support that claim, shredding any credibility she has.
• So the state government paid out hundreds of billions of dollars in taxpayer wealth and yet could not locate any of the bills???
• Are those running the government that incompetent or are they hiding some big time corruption or both?
• Left with no other choice to find out what is happening to $320 billion a year in the state budget, Real Politics has had to go to court to get the information.
• Their lawsuit wants a line by line detailed accounting of state government expenditures.
• Their track record is pretty in these types of cases since they have “never lost a state checkbook transparency fight. In 2012, we successfully sued Illinois Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka (R), and, in 2018, we sued Wyoming State Auditor Cynthia Cloud (R).”

If a private sector accountant said they he or she could not find the checks that the company had paid out they would likely come under immediate criminal suspicion. Auditors would be called in, the SEC and other government agencies might become involved and there would be a thorough scrubbing of the financials. But as a government employee, the California state Controller thinks she can just shrug her shoulders and say the government lost millions of bills?

Seems like the “Chuck Schumer” syndrome we just discussed, the political class passes the rules and laws for the rest of us but they seem to think they can get a pass whenever they want even if it involves shenanigans involving a whopping $320 billion.

Alright, this is a good start to this month’s political class insanity: lying politicians, pompous politicians, and incompetent politicians and government workers. Sounds about right.

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