Love My Country, Loathe My Government: September 2020

Monday, September 28, 2020

September, 2020, Part 11, Political Class Insanity: Minneapolis Goes Lawless, The State Department Ignores thew Fourth Amendment and The Clinton Email Scandal Continues

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

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

1) We have not talked about Hillary Clinton for a while, probably because she brings no value to the table when it comes resolving the nation’s issues. And the reality is that if she was not Hillary Clinton she would probably be in jail for the criminal transgressions she and her foundation have incurred over the years and the laws she broke while Secretary of State.

But recent news reports show that her transgressions may have been worse than even we imagined along with the FBI coverup to keep her out of jail:

Recall that a few years ago it was discovered that hundreds of thousands of secret Hillary’s State Department emails were found on the unsecured computer of Anthony Weiner, the husband of Clinton’s chief of staff.
Former FBI agent, John Robertson, was busy back then investigating crimes against children.
That is when he came across Anthony Weiner’s computer regarding Weiner’s trolling for underaged girls on the Internet.
Like a good FBI agent, he reported these State Department unsecured emails to his superiors, FBI superiors who just happened to be the same FBI people who went headhunting and conspiring to remove Trump from office.
Robertson was worried that no one above him in rank was moving on this bombshell information, secret State Department emails on an unsecured computer: “The crickets I was hearing was really making me uncomfortable because something was going to come down. Why isn’t anybody here? Like if I’m the supervisor of any [counterintelligence] squad … and I hear about this, I’m getting on with headquarters and saying, ‘Hey, some agent working child porn here may have [Hillary Clinton] emails. Get your ass on the phone, call [the case agent], and get a copy of that drive,’ because that’s how it should be. And that nobody reached out to me within, like, that night, I still to this day don’t understand what the hell went wrong. I have very deep misgivings about the institutional response of the FBI to the congressional investigation into the Hillary Clinton email matter … Put simply: I don’t believe the handling of the material I have by the FBI is ethically or morally right. But my lawyer’s advice — that I simply put my SSA on notice should cover me — is that I have completed CYA [Cover Your Ass], and I have done so,” Robertson wrote in a letter back in 2016. “Further, I was told by [Kramer] that should I ‘whistleblow,’ I will be prosecuted.”
Further: “I possess — the FBI possesses — 20 times more emails than Comey testified to. … While Comey did not know at the time about what I have, people in the FBI do now, and as far as I know, we are being silent. … If I say or do nothing more, I am falling short ethically and morally. And later, I may be accused of being a Hillary Clinton hack because of the timing of all this. … But if I say something (i.e., whistleblow), I will lose my reputation, my career, and risk prosecution. I will also be accused of being a Donald Trump hack.”
Robertson went on to testify to Congress that he was told to erase everything he had found and be quiet about the whole experience.

So Hillary allowed secret documents to end up on the unsecured computer of a child predator. An FBI agent investigating the predator finds these hundreds of thousands of emails and tells his FBI superiors about this massive security breach. His superiors go before Congress and lie about the volume of material that was found unsecured on Weiner’s laptop. They then tell a hard working FBI agent to make the whole criminal incident go away or his career would be in trouble.

And Obama supporters claim there were no scandals during his administration, a stance that has been destroyed many times. But here we see the top law enforcement officers in the Federal government suppressing law breaking and criminal activity for the sake of politics. Disgusting.

2) Shady doings at the State Department are not restricted to the Hillary Clinton/Barack Obama era, some illegal stuff was going on in 2019 during the Trump administration:

Freedom Of Information Act requests by Judicial Watch have shown that the State Department in 2019 illegally spied on conservative Americans.
Turns out the State Department illegally tracked the social media accounts of at least 13 Americans including Donald Trump, Jr., Fox News star Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Lou Dobbs, and others.
The illegal surveillance operation was conducted out of the U.S. embassy in Kiev when it was being run by Trump hater, Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch.

What the reason or purpose of the monitoring in a remote embassy was being used for or what triggered it is unknown. But all of those monitored would be considered conservatives/Republicans and even included Judicial Watch president, Tom Fitton. Another case of innocent Americans being illegally targeted and tracked without proper judicial oversight, a violation of their Fourth Amendment rights.

Looks like it is a Federal entity out of control, between lax monitoring of its documents' circulation to the illegal spying on Americans, do any of these people know anything about law and order and the Constitution?

3) Minneapolis was the center of the riots and anarchy that ensured after the police murder of George Floyd. Rioters and anarchists burned down parts of the city, destroying the homes and businesses of so many city residents.

As a result of this police murder, the local politicians on the town council hastily decided that they needed to “defund the police” and go about community safety a whole new way. The problem is they still do not know what that whole new way is.

However, that did not stop them from reducing the police budget and bad mouthing every city police officer because of the horrid behavior of a few bad cops. As we have discussed before, this budget cutting and undermining the integrity and effectiveness of the city police force has resulted in an explosion of violence, murders and crime in the city. So much so that:

City residents have started to compare their neighborhoods and downtown areas to a “war zone.”
The center of the George Floyd riots was in the police department’s 3rd precinct.
The building in that precinct was burned down during the riots and thus there is no longer a physical police presence in the neighborhood which has resulted in increased assaults and robberies.
Local business, Pedego Electric Bikes, got so frustrated that the owner formally communicated his concerns for his business and the safety of his employees, who were afraid of being robbed or attacked, to the city Police Chief.
The bike shop owner, Craig Paulson got the following response from the police chief: “As far as a long-term plan I don’t have one. I have lost 30% of my street officers since the end of May. Budget cuts from COVID-19 and an additional 1.5 million from the council in August we have let go of 17 CSO’s and canceled a recruiting class of 29. A potential Cadet class slated for January of 2021 was also eliminated. It takes about a year to get a police Officer onto the streets with hiring, backgrounds, and field training so reinforcements aren’t coming anytime soon. We are doing everything we can with what we have. I hate to see great businesses like yours and the rest of your corridor being victimized and feeling unsafe. Please let me know if you have any more questions.”
Wow, in other words Mr. Paulson, you and the rest of the businesses and residents of the city are on your own since 1) my budget has been cut, 2) my current police force staffing has been slashed, and 3) there are no police reinforcements on the way any time soon.

A very, very basic function of government at any level is to protect the lives and property of the citizens that the government and the politicians operating that government represent. In Minneapolis, a hasty and stupid rush to judgement when it comes to police operations has endangered the lives and property of every city in Minneapolis. It was a stupid concept to defund the police department and even more stupid concept to do it without having a comprehensive and effective replacement plan.

As a result, the local political class in Minneapolis has violated a very basic tenet and responsibility of government, protecting lives and property. Given this failure, it is a pretty easy prediction that residents and businesses will be moving out of the city in ever increasing numbers for places that actually protect their lives and property.

So, a massive government failure in Minneapolis, a government violation of the Fourth Amendment out of a U.S. embassy far, far away, and the Hillary Clinton law breaking, and the high ranking government/FBI officials that protected her, continues to this day.

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:

https://www.amazon.com/Walter-Bruno-Korschek/e/B002KYU08Q/ref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share

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

Thursday, September 24, 2020

September, 2020, Part 10, Political Class Insanity: A Lot Of Political Class "Firsts," None Of It The Good News For Americans

1) We have often and recently pointed out how Andrew Cuomo, governor of New York state, and Bill de Blasio, mayor of New York City, are probably/definitely among the worst governors and mayors in the country. Both have badly mishandled the coronavirus crisis, resulting in unnecessary deaths and infections in the state and city.

They have financially mismanaged their respective budgets, so much so that both are in the running to become the first state and largest U.S. city to go bankrupt. Residents of NYC and New York state are moving out of both areas at an ever accelerating rate to avoid the high crime and higher taxes. De Blasio has so mismanaged his relationship with the police and other city institutions that city crime and murders are ramping up steadily.

Well, it seems that some New Yorkers have had enough. In an action that a little while ago would have been unimaginable, they boldly put forth their opinions of both men:

At a recent Brooklyn block party, the party goers knocked off a Black Lives mural that had been painted on a Manhattan street, with the support and protection of de Blasio.
In big, bold yellow letters, the block party attendees painted “F**k Cuomo and de Blasio” on a Brooklyn street.
According to the New York Post: “A few party goers got the idea to paint in huge [letters, using] yellow paint with rollers on North 15th, ‘F–k Cuomo and de Blasio,’” an unidentified attendee said Sunday.”
In addition,“The party continued. Everyone took photos. It was a big hit. The crowds cheered, even the cops chuckled.”
The style was a knock off of the Black Lives Matter street paintings that have cropped up over the summer during the protests.

In all my years I have never seen such venom directed at two elected politicians, venom that is well deserved given how they have failed the residents of New York state and New York city.

2) Jeffrey Epstein was one very rich and very sick human being. As most people probably know by now, his wealth allowed him to own several very expensive living spaces including a whole island down in the Virgin Islands. And it is pretty well understood that Epstein used his properties and wealth to sexually exploit underage girls and shared this sick obsession with a lot of famous men.

The list of accused accomplices to the abuse of underage girls includes such famous people as Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew, former U.S. senators and famed lawyer Alan Dershowitz. And that list could get a lot longer very shortly:

The Virgin Islands attorney general has just ratcheted up the stakes in this sordid affair.
The attorney general, Denise George, has filed a lawsuit against the Epstein estate.
The lawsuit alleges that there were 22 counts of human trafficking, aggravated rape, child abuse, neglect, forced labor and prostitution.
She has subpoenaed for the flight logs to get the names of people that traveled to Epstein’s Virgin Island home on Epstein’s jets along with what dates they visited the island.
She wants over twenty years worth of visitor logs.

Should be interesting to finally find out what famous politicians and others flew down to Epstein’s “Pedophile Island” and finally find out who the real perverts are that have had so much influence over so many lives.

3) And why we were surprised to see, for the first time ever, such disrespect for a mayor and governor up in New York portrayed graphically on a Brooklyn street, we are just as surprised to see something for the first time ever also regarding three American cities:

According to reporting by The Hill, the Justice Department has designated Seattle, Portland, and New York City as “permitting anarchy.”
This “permitting anarchy” designation was created by a Trump memorandum order recently signed.
As a result of the order and these three cities getting designated, Federal agencies are now required to submit potential Federal budget funding cuts for those cities for their inaction regarding the violence and anarchy they allowed their cities to endure.
According to Attorney General William Barr: “When state and local leaders impede their own law enforcement officers and agencies from doing their jobs, it endangers innocent citizens who deserve to be protected, including those who are trying to peacefully assemble and protest. We cannot allow federal tax dollars to be wasted when the safety of the citizenry hangs in the balance. It is my hope that the cities identified by the Department of Justice today will reverse course and become serious about performing the basic function of government and start protecting their own citizens.”
These three cities got this damning designation because the mayor of Portland has allowed nightly riots to go on for over three months, the Seattle mayor lost control of a large section of downtown Seattle for weeks, and the New York City mayor has allowed violent crime to skyrocket in the past year.
The President tweeted out his rationale for his order: "My Administration will do everything in its power to prevent weak mayors and lawless cities from taking Federal dollars while they let anarchists harm people, burn buildings, and ruin lives and businesses. We’re putting them on notice today."

It is certainly an interesting approach to get those in office, who cannot do their basic job, protecting the lives and property of their constituents,to actually do their jobs. Whether it is Constitutional, I really do not know if the executive branch can cancel funding for certain entities unless he was given that power in the budgeting process for those funds.

But at least Trump is trying to do something, as compared to the nothing that the mayors of Portland, Seattle, and New York City have done which has endangered the lives, property, and welfare of millions of their citizens. This total inability to carry out that basic function of government is another thing I do not believe I have ever seen in this country.

4) A number of firsts today. The first time citizens wrote “F**K” a governor and mayor on a city street in huge block letters. The first time any law enforcement official wants to seriously investigate the famous people who were Jeffrey Epstein pedophiles. The first time the Federal government has had to step in and take action because city mayors could not fulfill a very basic government function, protect the lives and property of innocent residents.

And here is another, mind boggling first:

We have shown many, many times that the Chicago political class and its mayor, Lori Lightfoot, are terrible in serving the citizens of that city.
High murder rate, escalating violence and crime, a city budget heading for bankruptcy, etc. earns them the right to be considered the worst city politicians in the country.
Things have gotten so bad and dangerous in the city, that local postal workers are threatening to stop delivering mail in some neighborhoods since they feel it is too dangerous.
Recently, a postal delivery woman was actually shot while delivering mail.
According to CBS News Chicago: “Chicago postal workers, saying it is too dangerous to deliver the mail, are threatening to stop delivering in some neighborhoods one week after a mail carrier was shot on her route. Postal workers and community organizers joined together for a prayer vigil Thursday near the scene of last week’s shooting. The 24-year-old mail carrier remains hospitalized. She was shot four times during a drive-by shooting in the Burnside neighborhood.”
She had been delivering mail in this same neighborhood for a long time, she had no gang affiliations, she had not had a run in with anyone on her route, somebody just drove by and shot her.
Other mail carriers have been shot by paintball guns with red paint pellets giving the impression that those postal workers hit with the pellets are actually bleeding.

You cannot make this stuff up. That is how bad the city of Chicago has become because of totally inept politicians: postal delivery people are now in danger for their lives by simply delivering the mail. Insanity.

A lot of firsts today, none of them good, and all attributable to the inept members of the American political class.

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:

https://www.amazon.com/Walter-Bruno-Korschek/e/B002KYU08Q/ref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share

Tuesday, September 22, 2020

September, 2020, Part 9, Political Class Insanity: The Accelerating Financial Death Spiral in New York, Clueless In Minneapolis, and A Failed Mayor In Seattle

1) We have often discussed how many states (e.g., California, New York, New Jersey, Illinois) and cities (Chicago, New York City) have likely entered into financial death spirals. In this situation, local and state governments continually raise taxes, do not reduce spending but without raising the quality of life for residents and businesses.

As a result, people and businesses move elsewhere where the tax burden is less and the quality of life is better. This reduces the tax revenue stream of the local or state government which, rather than cut spending, or get more efficient, raises taxes even more. This results in more residents and businesses leaving which further reduces the tax revenue stream and thus, a financial death spiral.

The very sad thing about those states and cities that have entered the financial death spiral situation is that they somehow managed to do it after almost a decade of economic growth. It was not like a recession or depression suppressed tax revenue: in fact, I would bet that during the economic expansion, tax revenues were probably running at very high levels.

But rather than spend that time of growing tax revenue to get more efficient and smaller government wise, the local and state politicians continued to expand spending which eventually started to drive people and businesses out of the area.

Now, along comes the coronavirus, which requires unforeseen government expenses, and states and cities are in a financial cash crisis. And what is the first reaction of politicians:

Recent news article headline: “[New York Governor] Cuomo Suggests Taxes To Close COVID New York Budget Gap.”
Yes, rather than try to downsize excess government services, make government more efficient, his first reaction is to raise taxes, the very thing that is driving residents and businesses out of the state today.
And apparently this is not a random thought since he proclaimed it twice in three days.
The New York state government is facing an $8 billion shortfall and Cuomo claims that unless the Federal government, i.e. the rest of the country, bails him out then tax increases are a real possibility.
Now, while he did mention taxes first as a priority, he did throw a little shade on other options: “What would we do to try to fill it [the budget deficit]? Taxes, cuts, borrowing, early retirements for government workers. All of the above.”
But he is in a financial bind since raising taxes increases the velocity of the death spiral since those taxes will not improve the quality of life in New York, state, it will just fill a budget hole.
Borrowing money fixes a short term budget issue, maybe, but it just pushes the budget fiasco a little down the road.
Early retirements of government workers usually means a government financial incentive to those workers to retire which costs more money.
He tried to soften the blow with the typical political ploy, he is only going to raise taxes on the rich.
But those are exactly the same types of people that are leaving the high tax state of New York because 1) they are already heavily taxed and 2) they have the financial means to easily opt out of a high tax state.
In fact, the Tax Foundation rates New York City the worst in the nation for its combined state and local tax burden of 12.7%, before Federal income taxes, Social Security taxes, and Medicare taxes.

By not saving for a rainy day, financially, during the past decade of economic growth, politicians like Cuomo have put themselves in a likely untenable position: anything they do either drives people away which reduces the tax base, costs more money down the road (borrowing) or costs more money now (incenting government workers to retire early). An economic rock and a hard place.

2) As a result of the George Floyd death in Minneapolis and the ensuing riots and anarchy, the brilliant political minds of the Minneapolis city council declared that they were going to both defund the current police department and restructure law enforcement in the city. All of this posturing certainly reduced the respect and fear that criminals had for the city’s police force since the town leaders were disrespecting it and belittling it. It also soured the morale of police officers.

But something not really unexpected happened in the ensuing months:

Crime has gone up significantly in those months.
The ability of the police department to handle that increase in crime has been handcuffed by less of a city police budget and many police officers leaving the job because of the lack of respect from the political class and the inability to properly be prepared to deal with the crime wave.
Somehow, the idiots on the town council did not anticipate this reality, which is so hard to believe that they are so out of touch with reality.
And now they are crying out for answers because their constituents are telling them they cannot get police support when needed.
During a recent two hour city council meeting, council members relayed their concerns to the city police chief, Medaria Arradondo.
Among their concerns was that carjackings, street racing, robberies and shootings were going way up “Residents are asking, ‘Where are the police?'” asked newly elected council member Jamal Osman, a member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party.
Seriously, are they that stupid?
You defund and disrespect the police and are surprised that crime goes up?
For example, there have been more murders in the city this year already than in all of 2019.
The police chief informed the council that over 100 police officers have left the force this year, 50% higher than normal, which is not surprising when you are constantly getting bad mouthed by the council and losing resources to do your job, people are going to quit.
The chief explained it to the council members in really simple language: “Do you understand that the word ‘dismantle’ or ‘police-free’ also makes some people nervous, for instance? What if, in the middle of the night, my home is broken into? Who do I call?”

It is so unbelievable that these elected officials went ahead with their “defund the police” movement without having any backup plan to protect the residents of Minneapolis, a very basic function of government. And now they are surprised that crime is up?! Still no cure for stupid.

3) Speaking of stupid local city politicians, let’s go out to Seattle:

Remember how earlier this summer the mayor of Seattle allowed a bunch of anarchists to literally take over a large portion of downtown Seattle?
For weeks, the city government had actually lost control and sovereignty over a large chunk of its city, a situation that resulted in violence and crime.
And now, it is possible that the mayor may get arrested and brought to trial for allowing hoodlums and thugs to terrorize whole neighborhoods in the city for weeks and weeks.
The Federal Department of Justice may bring charges against mayor Jenny Durkin for negligence in losing control of part of her city and the ensuing rioting, looting, and violence that came with this loss of control.
The New York Times reports that Justice Department sources told the Times that the department’s civil rights division is investigating if Durkin could and should be charged.
The Justice Department has denied the Times story.

I don't know if this type of prosecution is even possible, the Federal government prosecuting a local mayor for not protecting her constituents. It should be interesting to see if the Times sources are right or there really is no effort underway. My bet: Attorney General Barr is actually looking at ways to protect citizens' lives and property when local politicians blatantly cannot, as witnessed by the uselessness of Durkin out in Seattle.

So, the New York state financial death spiral picks up steam as the budget holes grow, Minneapolis politicians show how clueless they really are, and an interesting legal situation in Seattle regarding one of the worst mayors in the country.

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:

https://www.amazon.com/Walter-Bruno-Korschek/e/B002KYU08Q/ref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share

Tuesday, September 15, 2020

September, 2020, Part 8, Political Class Insanity: More "Do As I Say, Not As I Do," Idiocy In San Francisco,and Out Of Touch In Portland

1) The coronavirus crisis has been with us for about six months. It required the government to shut down all but essential services to try and control the spread of the virus. At first, I think most ordinary citizens were alright with the shutdowns. They were a challenge and a pain but most were willing to go along with the politicians’ actions to shut down the economy except for the bare essentials.

But as time went on a funny, but not unexpected trend developed: while ordinary citizens were making sacrifices, politicians and government bureaucrats were living by their old hypocritical standard, “do as I say, not as I do:”

The Chicago mayor had her favorite hair salon open just for her to get her hair done although the mayor forbade anyone else to open their hair salon to go and get their hair done.
The mayor of Beaumont, Texas had her favorite nail salon just for her to get her nails done although the mayor forbade anyone else to open their nail salon or get their nails done.
The mayor of New York City had his gym open up only for him to get a workout in although the mayor forbade any other gym to open or anyone else to go work out in a gym.
The governor’s husband in Michigan tried to get his boat out on a lake for a boat ride over a holiday weekend even though his wife, the governor, forbade anyone else from doing the same.
The Speaker of The House of Representatives forced her favorite hair salon to open so she could get her hair done in San Francisco, a city that required hair salons to not serve anyone inside a building and required people wear masks, something the Speaker did not do.

You get the idea, politicians in this country kind of think of themselves as royalty where laws, rules, and edicts that they put forth which put burdens on us should not have to apply to them.

The latest hypocrisy has come to light out in San Francisco:

Local politicians have forced private city gyms, gyms where the great majority of people go to work out in that metro area, to stay closed since last March in order to tamp down the spread of the virus.
What was not shared with the public until recently was the reality that gyms inside of government buildings were shut down for only a very short while and that government employees had been using indoor gyms for months during the crisis even though non-government workers were denied access to their favorite non-government gyms.
This hypocrisy is not sitting well with both gym owners and gym members, as explained by Daniel Rabkin, who works at Crossfit Goldent Gate: “It’s shocking, it’s infuriating. Even though they’re getting exposed, there are no repercussions, no ramifications? It’s shocking.”
Thus, judges, police officers, paralegals, lawyers and bailiffs have had free, government gym access while private citizens were denied access to their gyms.
Dave Karraker, owner of MX3 Fitness: “It just demonstrates that there seems to be some kind of a double standard between what city employees are allowed to do and what the residents of San Francisco are allowed to do.”

“Do as I say, not as I do,” a hypocrisy that is alive and well in the city of San Francisco.

2) Picking up on a point made above, we have previously discussed how Nancy Pelosi showed unmitigated gall to force a San Francisco beauty salon to open, against current local city edicts, in order to get her hair done. On top of this egregious act, a video shows her walking around without a mask on, in violation of her complaints when Trump did not wear a mask in public.

Given that background:

London Breed is the current mayor of San Francisco.
I think it is a pretty assumption that he was intimately involved in passing and enforcing local San Francisco edicts and rules that were put in place to fight the spread of the coronavirus.
However, when asked what he thought of Pelosi who blatantly ignored at least two of those rules and edicts, he did not blame Pelosi.
Instead, he went off on a wild tangent to avoid blaming Pelosi and ranted against Trump: “Speak of revolutionary. The reigns of our country are in the hands of an arsonist and an outright dictator. Pelosi is a woman with courage. She is right at the forefront, battling the powerful ruler of the United States every single second. It takes immense fearlessness in a person to stand against the president of a country. Nancy Pelosi is doing her job by following all essential protocols to the T.”

Uh, no, she did not follow “all essential protocols to the T,” she blatantly disregarded at least two of them, protocols that the mayor and his administration put in place.

He continued to dig this hole deeper and deeper when he said he did not want to comment any more, that this was a petty issue and there were other bigger problems to be faced and resolved including the business and personal economic hardships caused by the virus.

Another example of `”do as I say, not as I do.” If it is such a petty thing that Pelosi did, then why should any ordinary citizen follow the rules, Pelosi did not.

However, given the royalty persona of American politicians, you can bet that if an ordinary person forced a hair salon to open, in violation of the mayor’s edict, and walked around without a face mask, in violation of the mayor’s edict, that person’s transgression would not be viewed as petty, there would be real consequences for violations.

It is just that politicians view themselves as special and above rules and regulations and as the mayor has shown, they cover for each other, diverting away from the real transgressions.

3) There are so many atrociously bad mayors around the country it is difficult to pick one out. From de Blasio in NYC to Lightfoot in Chicago to Seattle to San Francisco to LA, so many inept people doing such an inept job. One day de Blasio has the lead for worst mayor until Lightfoot one ups him, so hard to decide.

But the mayor of Portland, Oregon, Mayor Ted Wheeler, has done a real solid job of being the worst mayor in the country. For over 100 days he has allowed anarchists to march, attack police, attack civilians, set fires and actually drive him out of his home like a coward in the night.

And despite all of his failures and bad decisions, he recently added to his level of incompetence:

Despite 100 days of destruction and rioting, he has now prohibited the police from using tear gas, a non-lethal crowd control option.
Specifically: “We need something different. We need it now. It’s time for everyone to reduce the violence in our community. We all want change. We all have the opportunity and obligation to create change. We all want to focus on the fundamental issue at hand–justice for Black people and all people of color.”
He added that he is working with the Oregon legislature to seek “safer alternatives” to non-lethal gas.”
The Portland Police Bureau of course disagrees with this insanity, pointing out that tear gas has been used sparingly and only when lives were in danger which required to disperse the rioters.
In addition they correctly pointed out that: “Banning the lawful use of CS will make it very difficult to address this kind of violence without resorting to much higher levels of physical force, with a correspondingly elevated risk of serious injury to members of the public and officers.”

What an idiot. Nobody is getting seriously hurt from this gas and it is only being used to save lives and he has a problem with it. He is investigating other options but has none yet but still he has a problem with it. Seems he should have higher sense of urgency over the 100 straight nights of violence and riots and not a useful police riot control option, especially when he has no replacement technique. And maybe once, just once, he should give the Portland police the help and support they need after over 100 days of protecting city lives and property.

But no, he would rather support the rioters night in and night out and after 100 days have no solutions to the violence ripping through his city. Of course, he talks big: “Arson, vandalism, and violence are not going to drive change in this community. I expect the police to arrest people who engage in criminal acts. I expect the District Attorney to prosecute those who commit criminal acts. And I expect the rest of the criminal justice system to hold those individuals accountable. We must stand together as a community against violence and for progress.”

Big talk, little action. After 100 days and nights of violence and anarchy, it is obvious he is not the answer, he is just a pawn being thrown about from a situation he allowed to fester and grow out of control. Today, he is the worst mayor in the country.

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:

https://www.amazon.com/Walter-Bruno-Korschek/e/B002KYU08Q/ref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share

Sunday, September 13, 2020

September, 2020, Part 7,Political Class Insanity: De Blasio Puts NYC Into A Financial Death Spiral, Gretchen Builds a Wall To Protect Herself, and Biden Messes Up Again

1) Gretchen Whitmer is the governor of Michigan. She was probably the second worst performing politician/governor relative to the coronavirus behind the governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo. We have previously gone into her many screw ups and will not repeat them here but she made herself look foolish, inept, and petty so many times.

And her poor performance continues along those same lines in a completely different area:

Apparently, Michigan taxpayers are putting out over $1 million so that the governor can build a security wall and security system around the governor’s mansion where she currently resides.
The fence will be 8 feet high and the cost of the fence and enhanced security for the governor and her family will be about $1.1 million.
This is the same lady that chastised Trump for building a wall along the southern border with Mexico to keep out drug cartels, human traffickers and other undesirables in order to better protect the lives and property of American citizens
But she has no problem using additional taxpayer money to protect herself and her family.
And not only is the wall 8 feet high but according to news reports, there is a sign already in place that claims, “Danger. High Voltage. Unauthorized persons keep out.”

The governor is not beyond spending taxpayer wealth to better protect her family and property but gets all upset if Trump does the same thing. The hypocrisy is amazing. She gets even more protected, the residents in her state’s cities and towns can fend for themselves.

This is shades of what the mayor of Chicago, Lori Lightfoot, did for herself and her family. She used the taxpayer funded Chicago police force to ensure that violent protests and riots did not occur in her neighborhood and endanger her family. The other families in the city’s other neighborhoods did not get the same police support.

Another form of politicians favorite hypocrisy, “do as I say, not as I do.” You common folk go put up with criminals, rioters, etc. will use taxpayer money to at least ensure that I am safe, So sad and pathetic.

2) We have purposely tried to not talk about the upcoming Presidential election, it is tiring and depressing. But as a trained statistician, I could not pass up on a recent Biden screw up when it comes to numbers and how either he is so misinformed or more likely, his cognitive abilities continue to decline dramatically, making coherent sentences and concepts too difficult for him:

At a recent political campaign stop, Biden asserted that 6,114 U.S. military personnel had died from the coronavirus.
Unfortunately, his assertion was a little off...by 6,107 deaths.
Only 7 armed forces personnel have died from the virus according to a Pentagon website, no 6.114.
He also grossly overstated the number of armed forces personnel who contracted the virus by a whopping 79,000.
His campaign tried to say that he had confused the number of deaths and infections in Michigan with the number of deaths and infections within the armed forces but even those numbers don't match.

Bottom line, he screwed up royally, much like he has done during the whole campaign, bringing into question both his integrity when it comes to numbers and/or his ability to think clearly. If he cannot get two numbers right at a campaign stop, who really thinks that he has the cognitive ability to be President?

3) We have recently and often discussed the reality that Bill de Blasio, the mayor of New York City, is one of several American mayors that should be considered the worst mayor in the country. In fact, a fellow New York Democrat recently called de Blasio not only the worst NYC mayor ever but the worst mayor in the history of the country, all cities and all towns included.

He has alienated and insulted the New York Police Department any number of times during his term. He has reduced the police budget by an amazing $1 billion at the same time that violence, murders, shootings, and crime is skyrocketing in his city. Moving companies cannot find enough moving vans to satisfy the demand for NYC resident leaving the city due to the increased crime and higher and higher taxes.

A recent article on the Townhall website by Daniel J.Mitchell laid out how the city is in the beginning of a financial death spiral:

According to the article, the city has a massive spending problem that results in higher and higher taxes to feed the higher and higher spending which eventually drives people to relocate out of the city.
Things are so out of control that even the leftist New York Times believes that only fiscal constraint will fix what ails the city.
The city currently has a $5 billion budget shortfall.
De Blasio has asked the state government to give him the authority to borrow billions of dollars to fill the budget shortfall but the wisdom of doing that is pretty shaky, i.e. incurring more debt to pay off existing debt/budget shortfalls.
Incurring debt to cover operating expenses eventually leads a city to collapse financially, e.g. Detroit.
And most of this budget issue is due to de Blasio since the city’s annual budget has grown from $73 billion in his first year in office in 2014 to a whopping $92 billion in 2019.
This spending increase of 26% is far higher than any measure of economic growth during those years.
And a lot of that growth in city expenses is because of the hiring of thousands of new city employees during that time frame, which means it is not going to be easy to trim payroll to close the budget hole especially if city unions have anything to say about it.
Unbelievably, even given the budget hole, the mayor has yet to implement a hard hiring freeze to slow down the financial bleeding.
But he still doesn't get it since he recently advocated for even HIGHER taxes which will cause the outward migration of NYC residents, especially the wealthier, higher paying tax ones, to leave the city even quicker.
And city companies are not ignorant in seeing how tenuous NYC financials are.
NYC financial giant JP Morgan is already locating some of its NYC employees to other locations, so much so that Texas will soon host more JP Morgan employees than NYC does.
As the wealthier residents leave cities like NYC, the politicians who refuse to cut spending have no choice but to raise taxes on middle class residents who cannot move out as easily as wealthier former residents can.

The financial death spiral for NYC is well underway. The question is not longer “if” but is now “how fast.” Higher taxes, higher crime levels, and no solution from the city’s political class is a deadly combination.

4) As I was finishing up the above description of how NYC was probably in a financial death spiral, another article verifying those concerns came to my attention:

A recent New York Times article by Emma Fitzsimmons and Dana Rubinstein discussed a recent open letter that 150 NYC business leaders had sent to de Blasio.
In that letter, “More than 150 business leaders in New York City joined together on Thursday to warn Mayor Bill de Blasio that he needed to take more decisive action to address crime and other quality-of-life issues that they said were jeopardizing the city’s economic recovery."
These companies included such long time NYC businesses such as Goldman Sachs, Jet Blue, Vornado Realty Trust and others.
The letter addressed issues such as crime, public safety, city cleanliness, homelessness, and so-called quality of life issues for their businesses and their employees.
The letter warned de Blasio that people who have temporarily left the city, employees who are now working at home because of the virus crisis and those that have moved out of the city would be slow to return because of concerns over “security and the livability of our communities.”
A response to the letter by the Mayor’s office encouraged business leaders to work with him and the city government to fix the many problems but provided no plans, no strategies, or suggestions how to fix what de Blasio has broken in the past six years.
Kathryn Wylde, the president of the Partnership for New York City, kind of summed up the business employee concerns quite nicely: “All these employers are committed to the city, they want to see economic recovery, but they’re getting pushback from their employees about, will the city be safe, will the city be clean.”
Scott Rechler, CEO of RXR Realty, blamed de Blasio directly for the mess: “The problem right now is leadership. We need a strong leader to address these problems, to encourage people to feel comfortable coming back to the city,” with the obvious implication that the current mayor is not a strong leader.
Rather than come up with an action plan to fix the many problems, the only thing de Blasio could offer was a pathetic plea for business leaders to help him get extra debt borrowing authority from the state (see above why that is a stupid idea) and more Federal aid which Trump, and the rest of the country, is unlikely to agree to, no plan just plain crybaby whining.
On the same day of the letter, de Blasio’s sanitation commissioner, Kathryn Garcia, quit her job because of what she called “unconscionable” sanitation department budget cuts, not a good omen for the city’s cleanliness future.
Most business offices in the city are currently running below 10% capacity as businesses move out of the city or employees of businesses continue to work from home, another bad omen when it comes to city industries that once serviced those employees: cabs, restaurants, barbers, etc.

Not a pretty sight, but all of that is because ultra liberal/shadow communist de Blasio insisted on continually increasing the city budget beyond the city’s taxpayers ability to pay. If he had capped the increases to the annual city budget at say 3% back in 2014, he would roughly have saved the city about $5 billion, enough to close the current year budget shortfall.

If he had capped the annual rise in the city budget at 2%, not an unreasonable target, he would have about $9 billion less in spending, more than enough to cover two years of budget deficits without raising taxes, incurring more debt, or pleading for more Federal help. A classic case of politicians only worrying about the next election, not the next generation, and as a result, that next generation will be faced with government debt, cuts in essential city services, and a lower quality of life.

So, we found out today that: de Blasio has likely put New York City into a financial death spiral, Joe Biden continues to be dazed and confused, and Governor Whitmer, like other politicians, is more concerned about her own safety than the safety and quality of life of her constituents.

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:

https://www.amazon.com/Walter-Bruno-Korschek/e/B002KYU08Q/ref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share

Love My Country, Loathe My Government

Monday, September 28, 2020

September, 2020, Part 11, Political Class Insanity: Minneapolis Goes Lawless, The State Department Ignores thew Fourth Amendment and The Clinton Email Scandal Continues

Thursday, September 24, 2020

September, 2020, Part 10, Political Class Insanity: A Lot Of Political Class "Firsts," None Of It The Good News For Americans

Tuesday, September 22, 2020

September, 2020, Part 9, Political Class Insanity: The Accelerating Financial Death Spiral in New York, Clueless In Minneapolis, and A Failed Mayor In Seattle

Tuesday, September 15, 2020

September, 2020, Part 8, Political Class Insanity: More "Do As I Say, Not As I Do," Idiocy In San Francisco,and Out Of Touch In Portland

Sunday, September 13, 2020

September, 2020, Part 7,Political Class Insanity: De Blasio Puts NYC Into A Financial Death Spiral, Gretchen Builds a Wall To Protect Herself, and Biden Messes Up Again

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