September, 2023, Political Class Insanity, Part 4: Biden's Lies, Dementia State and His Endangering of America

 Every month we devote posts to just general political class insanity that is running rampant through the country. The members of the American political class continue to show that they are incapable of operating any level of government in this country. 

Even their best efforts are almost always inefficient and ineffective at resolving any problem facing Americans. They spend a great amount of time not trying to improve the lives of their citizens but continually ensuring their reelection and enriching themselves, their families, and their friends in the process, all at taxpayer expense.

We have stated many times that we believe that Joe Biden is in the depths of dementia and yet still leads the country. He displayed many of the signs of someone in that state:

• He lashes out in anger.

• He forgets accurate information regarding dates, people, and past events.

• He insists on being at his homes where he is comfortable and at ease, having spent well over 100 days at his homes in Delaware.

• His gait and constant trait of tripping and falling suggest someone with the disease.

I was legal  guardian of an elderly uncle for five years until his death and the behavior and traits my uncle exhibited were in line with the deteriorating behavior of Biden.

Thus, I do not know whether to be sympathetic to his health condition, mad at him for his failures as President, or mad that his wife, family, and political handlers put him through this process and in the process has screwed up the country with his half baked, ineffective programs. All of which has saddled the country with a many, many problems that did not exist in late January, 2021: high inflation, a failed foreign policy, a failed immigration policy that has many dangerous and expensive attributes, skyrocketing national debt, and no plan in place to fix any of the problems facing Americans today.

Thus, to drive home our point and observations, consider the following true stories of how the President of the United States sees the world and how out of touch with reality he is:

1)Bill Richardson was a former Democratic governor of New Mexico and held many other political positions in various parts of government in the country. Unfortunately, he recently passed away. Biden released a message sending his condolences via the following statement: “Bill and I crossed paths for the first time decades ago, when he was a staffer on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which I served on as Senator. Over the years, I saw firsthand his passion for politics, love for America, and unflagging belief that, with respect and good faith, people can come together across any difference, no matter how vast. He was a patriot and true original, and will not be forgotten. Jill and I send our love to his family, including his wife of over 50 years, Barbara, and their daughter Heather.”

Seems like Biden knew Mr. Richardson quite well. Well, maybe not:

• It seems that Mr.  Richardson and his wife never had a daughter named Heather.

• In fact, they never had any daughters at all.

Thus, is Biden that out of touch that he makes up the name of a daughter of a friend that does not exist, is his speech writing and general staff so stupid and non-attentive to detail that they make up a person that does not exist, or both? If Biden was as close to Richardson as he claims, why didn’t he catch this ridiculous error in the statement? These are the types of people running the country today, cannot even get a simple condolence statement right.

2)Biden recently gave a speech at an event commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. Simple math proves that this organization was formed in 1963, at which time was a mere 20 years old, probably not out of college yet and about nine years prior to getting elected to Congress for the first time.

Now, before going any further, remember that we have previously discussed the many,  many lies he has told over the years:

https://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2023/01/38-times-that-joe-biden-blatantly-lied.html

https://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2020/10/october-2020-part-3-political-class.html

https://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2023/08/joe-biden-lies-continue-part-1-national.html

Okay, now that we have his history of lying:

• Again, as a review, Biden recently gave a speech to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the “Lawyers Committee For Civil Rights Under Law.”

• Simple math tells us that the organization was founded in 1963.

• At that time Biden would have been 20 years old, probably still in college, and would not become a member of Congress until about nine years later.

• And yet, he boasted in this speech that he had convinced long term Senator, Strom Thurmond, to change his vote and vote in favor of the Civil Rights act in 1964 when Biden would have been 21 years old.

• Specifically:  “I was able to — literally, not figuratively — talk Strom Thurmond into voting for the Civil Rights Act before he died.”

A few problems with this speech, as there are with anything that comes out of Biden’s mouth:

• I doubt that long term Senator Strom Thurtmond sat down with 21 year old Joe Biden and took his advice.

• Thuromnd actually voted against the legislation, the exact opposite of what Biden said he convinced him NOT to do.

• Thurmond died almost 40 years after the legislation was passed so for Biden to imply that he convinced him to vote for the legislation just  before he died while accurate, the fact that he died almost 40 years later does not seem like Biden made him change his vote in the nick of time before death occurred.

He lies and then he lies some more. Or does he actually believe these fantasy exploits of his past. Or does he think we are too stupid to see through his lies which are easily identified. In any case, not the type of Presidential behavior this country wants or news, his whole presidency is a fallacy.

3)Another characteristic of a dementia victim is lack  of focus and attention. This was recently demonstrated by Biden during a White House ceremony when his behavior was completely at odds with tradition:

• Biden was at a recent White House event to present retired Army Captain Larry Taylor with the Medal Of Honor for his heroic actions during the Vietnam War.

• As a helicopter pilot in 1968, Taylor is credited with saving the lives of troops during a night action battle.

• According to news reports, he used his helicopter to draw fire away from the soldiers on the ground and then came back to rescue them and fly them out of danger.

• Obviously, he deserved the medal Of Honor and probably should have received it years ago.

• Apparently, Biden pinned the medal on the hero and then abruptly left the room without comment.

• According to a news article covering the event: “In the video, you can see the utter shock of members of the audience that saw him leave the room.”

• This is certainly not the protocol since the honor ceremony was still going on and it left the baffled Taylor standing by himself in front of friends, family, and the press.

• His lame press secretary provided this lame excuse: "We've got to put this all in context. We planned for the President to leave when there was a pause in the program so that it would minimize him being in the room. He did just that.”

We planned for him to leave the room?  I don’t think so, the ceremony was still going on, why would you want to “minimize” him being in the room? If this was a covid thing he could have left after the ceremony was done and still not mingled. He is lost and confused, simple as that, given his mental state.

4) And Americans are started to worry and realizing that Biden’s mental state is not the type of situation you want when there are so many issues, problems, and foreign enemies to deal with today:

•  Recent opinion poll  found that a whopping 70% of those polled said they are either “very concerned” of “somewhat concerned” for the safety of the country with Biden as President.

• Only 28% said they are not concerned about the safety of the country under Biden.

• And even a majority of Democrats polled, 54%, are concerned that Biden’s failing mental  health endangers the country.

• 92% of Republicans think Biden is endangering the country and 70% of independent voters agree.

The conclusion from those conducting the poll: “In short, virtually everyone worries about Biden’s mental faculties as he navigates the treacherous waters of overseas politics, diplomacy and military affairs.” Given the subjects already covered in this blog, it is not hard to understand why 7 out of 10 Americans think we are not safe with Biden as President. 

The equally interesting question is why do even 28% think that Biden is not a danger to national safety when he is delusional on facts and his own personal history and appears to have a very light grip on the reality of today’s world situation, both domestically and internationally. Dangerous, dangerous political class 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:

https://www.amazon.com/Love-My-Country-Loathe-Government/dp/1604942789/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=love+my+country%2C+loathe+my+government&qid=1607716020&sr=8-1

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

http://www.reason.com

http://www.cato.org

http://www.openthebooks.com

http://www.conventionofstates.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

 

President Obama - Channeling Richard M. Nixon?

I was reading a New York Times article the other day, which was written by Mark Landler and Helene Cooper, and something they wrote about President Obama reminded me that Richard Nixon had had the same attitude back in the 1960s and 1970s.

The article was titled, "Obama Seeks A Course of Pragmatism In the Middle East." It discussed the difficult time and criticism the President has been under as a result of his administration's reactions and actions to the upheaval in the Middle East. The article concludes with the following words: "Mr. Obama has told people that it would be so much easier to be the president of China. As an official put it: 'No one is scrutinizing Hu Jintao's (Chinese Premier) words in Tahrir Square.'"

Seems the President might be getting a little irritated that others in this country and abroad somehow have a difference of opinion with his policies. Almost to the point that how dare anyone criticize his decisions. Compare this view of self pity with a famous Nixon quote: "Politics would be a helluva a good business if it weren't for the g__d____ed people." Kind of sounds like the same problem: I am the President of the United States. I should be able to do what I want since I am that much smarter than the rest of you, you people are little more than irritants that make my life less enjoyable.

It is a shame that both Presidents think or thought this way. It is called a democracy, we are allowed to question our leaders' decisions even if it irritates them.

However, this channeling of Nixon does not end here if you do a little more research. Recently, President Obama has shown a very distressing tendency to ignore judicial protocol and decisions that he does not agree with. When a Federal judge deemed his Gulf oil drilling moratorium to be illegal, the administration merely revoked the original moratorium and replaced it with a virtually identical second moratorium, a charade that the judge promptly struck down with words admonishing the administration for its obvious disregard for his first ruling.

More recently, the President deemed that the Defense of Marriage Act to be unconstitutional, a responsibility of the Supreme Court, not Barack Obama. This law, no matter how one views it, has been on the books for about fifteen years and has not been severely tested or found wanting in any court. The President basically said he did not like it or find it Constitution and unilaterally decided not to enforce it.

Sounds an awful like a Nixon position and statement from long ago: "Under the doctrine of separation of powers, the manner in which the President personally exercises his assigned executive powers is not subject to questioning by another branch of government." Thus, I guess President Obama was just exercising this Nixon tenet: regardless of what Congress has passed or the courts have decided, the President is not subject to questioning by these other two branches of government, even though the Constitution is structured to allow such questioning and separation of powers.

Now we are just getting warmed up. Consider some words from President Obama regarding the need to respect each other and to get along even though we may have differences of opinion: "So we face big and difficult challenges. And what the American people hope – what they deserve – is for all of us, Democrats and Republicans, to work through our differences, to overcome the numbing weight of our politics."

Sounds good until you view it in the light of a Nixonism: "Let us move from an era of confrontation to the era of negotiation." In both instances, the words do not match the actions. Nixon had his famous "enemies list" of people who dared to confront him and his actions. President Obama has allowed his Democratic Party partners to lash out at anyone who dared to honestly and rightfully criticize or confront an Obama initiative with such disparaging words as un-American, racists, Neanderthal, and members of the Klan. Sounds all too familiar.

To quote many a TV ad, there's more! On March 8, 2011, the Washington Post reported that President Obama recently signed an executive order to "create a formal system of indefinite detention for those held at Guantanamo, Cuba who continue to pose a significant threat to national security." Thus, with the stroke of a pen, the President has decided to deny a basic right of freedom to other human beings, the right to a fair and open trial so that the defendants can properly defend themselves and a just verdict reached after all of the facts and evidence have been put forth. Now, one man, the President, has decided to void that right, a right that is fundamental to the American justice system.

How can he dare do this? Maybe he is still channeling Nixon who once said: "When the President does it, that means that it's not illegal." Phew, I thought we were voiding something important here, the right to a fair trial. Lucky thing that Nixon blazed that trail, placing more value on a President's sole judgment than centuries of proven and successful judicial processes.

One more seance example. Recently, Congressman Darrell Issa of California asked the administration for a ton of information, in various forms, as it applies to the backroom negotiations that went on during the formulation of Obama Care between the administration and the major drug companies and other health care field companies. Issa wants to be sure that no illegal or other hanky panky deals were made to get support for the passage of Obama Care as part of the Congressional committee he chairs. 

One would have thought that this opportunity was consistent with the President's pledge of a transparent government, a major campaign selling point of his. Unfortunately, that is not the case. The President responded by  saying most, if not all, of the Issa request would not be granted since it would harm the separation of powers and that it might weaken the executive branch of the government. 

I am not smart enough to understand if the President's claim is true and Issa is just on a vindictive witch hunt or the President does have something to hide and Issa is on a campaign for truth. The point is that Nixon has already been down this path when he stated: "If I were to make public these tapes, containing blunt and candid remarks on many different subjects, the confidentiality of the office of the President would always be suspect."  If memory serves me right, these tapes were eventually ordered released by the Supreme Court so it should be interesting to see where the Issa/Obama dance ends up, given the Nixon precedent.

It does not say much if the President is actually looking to Richard Nixon for guidance in governance. The Nixon administration was infamous for its insecurity, its secrecy, its vindictiveness, and eventually, its ineffectiveness. By channeling the Nixon way of thinking and governing, the President sets himself up for failure.

Until that point of failure, major issues do not get addressed and resolved and the cornerstones of our democracy, the Constitution, the separation of powers, and the respect for the responsibility of each government branch will deteriorate, dragging down our personal freedom and liberties in the process. Seems that we have not evolved our democracy very much if Nixon's words ring true today within the executive branch.



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 http://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.robertringer.com
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.repealamendment

Why It Is Still Stupid To Overtax the Rich

The annual tug of war is upon us again. the Democrats want to tax the rich even more and the Republicans do not. In this case, the battleground is whether or not the Bush tax cuts should be allowed to expire or they should be continued for all people or just those earning less than under $250,000 a year. Obama wants to move the highest tax bracket to 39% for those earning over $250,000 a year, four points higher than the current 35%.


One of the problems with this year's argument is that it is just before a midterm election cycle and the political class is out posturing again, trying to use the issue to gather votes and divide the country, rather than do the right thing for the economy and American families. Below are some random thoughts on why raising the tax on the rich is not a good thing to do in the midst of a lousy economy and high unemployment:

• By Obama's own calculations and mine, which were published in a previous post, raising the highest tax rate on the so-called rich would generate an additional $70 billion or so annually for the Federal government. This is $70 billion that cannot be spent on cars, restaurants, vacations, iPads, and other economic growth activities. To put this number in perspective, the Obama administration in its first three years is likely to run about a $1.4 TRILLION deficit in each year. Thus, if the Federal government got their hands on this $70 billion, and it was used for deficit reduction, the annual reduction in just the budget deficit would be about 5%. Thus, the argument the Democrats put out that the rich need to do their share of reducing the deficit is bogus. The amount that would be gathered is about only 5% and it is doubtful that even this measly amount would be used to reduce the deficit, it would likely find its way into more wasteful government growth spending.
• Obama likes to blow up the number and give a ten year figure for more impact, citing a 10 year revenue gain by the government as $700 billion. However, the current trajectory of government spending will add about another $10 TRILLION to the national debt unless drastic action is taken soon. Thus, even with the ten year view, this amount of increase taxes would be only about 7%. And this estimate assumes that the economy gets very healthy, very soon. If not, deficit spending will get higher, the national debt will get higher, and this number will be even smaller. The national debt is not a tax revenue problem, it is a massive out of control spending problem by the political class.
• Consider a real life example of a long time friend of mine. He established and for more than thirty years has worked tremendously hard to build up his successful brokerage and insurance business. He probably works over 60 hours a week and I do not know the last time he took a real vacation. I begrudge him nothing because his success was done the old fashioned way, hard work and innovation. He earns over $250,000 a year and would be affected by these tax increases. He foresaw this coming right after Obama took office and made some family financial decisions. Since his only diversion from work is his boat, he wanted to protect that part of his life. Thus, his family decided that as a result of not keeping as much money from the government and political class, he would lay off his long term housekeeper and he and his wife would no longer go out to dinner every Wednesday night. Imagine that these types of trade off decisions are being made by thousands of Americans across the country and you start to see why unemployment is staying so high.
• Forbes magazine recently released its latest list of the richest 400 Americans. If you add up the net worth of these 400 people, their net worth, not their income, you come out to about $1.4 TRILLION. If the government was theoretically able to confiscate the TOTAL WEALTH of these 400 Americans, it might be able to pay off the Federal deficit from just one year's worth of Obama's spending. Unfortunately, you could only do this once since the richest 400 would be among the poorest after this type of heist next year. It's a silly analogy but effective: even if you stole the wealth of the richest, you could not come close to paying off the national debt that this political class continues to inflict on us and our children. To say that these tax cuts are critical to reducing our debt is ludicrous.
• Since the poorest people on the Forbes list were worth about a billion dollars each, even if you confiscated the wealth of the next 400, the government's take would be considerably less than $400 billion, not even close to covering the deficit spending that the Obama administration has embarked on.
• Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, today announced he was donating $100 million of his personal wealth to help the Newark, New Jersey school system. He would not have been able to make that donation if the government confiscated his wealth. Combine this with the billions of dollars that Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, and the Sam Walton family have contributed to great causes and try to imagine what would happen to those causes if the government had taken all of their wealth. Again, strictly a theoretical example but one that illustrates that wealthy people do a lot of good in this country. They help improve our pitiful public school systems, they contribute to causes to wipe out disease, they hire housekeepers, they dine out in restaurants, etc. And the political class would probably be happy, especially the Democrats, if rich people were wiped out.

Why Obama has the compulsion to stick it to the rich is beyond me. Perhaps it is because he never really had a real job in the private sector. Perhaps because it is just another crude political ploy to "energize his base," the good of the economy and the rights of Americans to keep what they earn be damned. The only good news is that if he continues with these types of tax policies, combined with his massive failures in the economic stimulus area, he will indeed become a one term, Jimmy Carter-like caricature of a President because he will not turn around the economy, reduce unemployment, and reduce the national debt with his current approaches.


Now, if you think that the rich do not pay enough in taxes, that is absolutely your right to think that way. But please, do not tell me it is their patriotic duty to give the political class more money, it is not. Please, do not tell me we need this money to balance the budget and reduce our national debt, it will have minimal effect. And please, do not tell me that they did not earn their wealth, the great majority of them did, and the great majority of them on that Forbes list made our lives better in the process. To think otherwise, is just pettiness and jealously on your part.



Our new 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.

The Lost War On Drugs - Somebody Please Tell Washington Their Battle Is Already Lost

For the past four decades, the American political class has been fighting "the War On Drugs" in various different ways and with a tremendous amount of energy and taxpayer dollars. How is that "war" going, you may ask, thinking that after four decades surely some progress must have been made. In light of your curiosity, consider some recent news stories:

• A Huffington Post article from earlier in July reported that a car bomb was used for the first time in drug related Mexican violence. It was detonated in Juarez, Mexico, just across the border from El Paso, Texas and killed three people. According to the article, the composition and detonation of the bomb was "seemingly lifted from the Al Qaida playbook."
• An Associated Press article from July 24, 2010 reported that Veterans Affairs hospitals and clinics will be able to use medical marijuana in the fourteen states where it's legal. Now the Veteran's Affairs organization is a part of the same Federal government that raids California and other states' medical marijuana clinics for being in violation of Federal law that makes marijuana illegal. Seems like the Federal left hand and the right hand are working two different agendas and wasting taxpayer money in the process.
• In an Associated Press article from July 19, 2010, it was reported that several gunmen drove up to a party, jumped out of their car, gunned down dozens of people (wounding 18 and killing 17), and drove off. This attack is believed to be drug gang related and came about a month after other gunmen raided a drug rehab center and killed 19 people. The article goes on to document the many mass shootings that have occurred in northern Mexico since the beginning of the year as the battle to control the illegal drug market continues to grow.
• The July/August, 2010 Cato Policy Report quoted an article from a May issue of the Washington Post which described a deadly gun battle in Jamaica's capital between an alleged drug kingpin and police and soldiers that resulted in the death of thirty people. The kingpin was wanted in the United States for selling marijuana and crack cocaine in the New York area.
• The Cato Policy Report quoted another May Washington Post article. This article reported on Federal surveys which put the District Of Columbia among the nation's leaders in marijuana consumption. The article quoted District teenagers who said they can buy pot more easily than beer or cigarettes.
• California's Proposition 19 in November would allow cities and towns in California to regulate and tax their local marijuana market.

Okay, let's review. the Federal government and political class do not want you smoking any kind of marijuana for any purpose, including medical use, since it is illegal at the Federal level but fourteen states say it is legal for medical marijuana to be used within their state borders. After four decades, we have created an evolving, violent narco-state just south of our borders with violence from that narco-state condition now approaching epidemic levels. Despite untold TRILLIONS of dollars spent on the drug war, our kids can buy marijuana easier than they can buy cigarettes and booze. And one of the leading metro area for marijuana use is the capital from which politicians declare that marijuana for any purpose is illegal. This all sounds more like insanity than a coherent drug policy.

And while all of this is going on, what did our politicians do this week:

• President Obama wasted numerous hours traveling to, preparing for, and appearing on a daytime TV talk show.
• Many Democrats in the House of representatives are only worried about now not to get tarhished by the ethics violations of Charles Rangel and Maxine Walters.
• Governor Bill Richardson, the governor of New Mexico, a U.S. border state with Mexico and whose eastern border is very close to Juarez, Mexico, site of the car bombing described above, was working on the issue of whether he should grant Billy The Kid a pardon - one hundred and twenty nine years after Billy died.

There you have it: a failed drug war and a distracted political class. That is why Step 26 of "Love My Country, Loathe My Government" is so important. Step 26 would convene a set of experts, similar to the Manhattan Project, without politicians and lobbyists, and come up with a coherent and sane national drug policy, doing a ground up approach and analysis of the current situation, and recommending a set of alternatives to the "War On Drugs" that the American people, not the political class would vote on. The political class has already proven they cannot get focused enough to take an unbiased look at the problem that gets worse every day from a violence perspective.

Although I am no expert in this field and would not want to prejudice any panel, I cannot help but think any new approach going forward has to embrace at least decriminalization, if not total legalization. The genie is out of the bottle with fourteen states already allowing medical marijuana usage and California possibly legalizing any type of marijuana usage. Our kids can easily get illegal drugs whenever they want to. We have proven that suppressing demand is extremely difficult. This does not mean we should not try and help those escape the clutches of their addiction and who want such help. But Portugal was able to do both, decriminalize illegal drugs and offer enhanced drug rehab services for those that wanted it. As a result, drug usage actually went down in Portugal as a result of this much saner approach as did wasted law enforcement resources.

Waiting for the political class to solve this problem, particularly the ever escalating and approaching violence due to our current laws, is a strategy of failure. After forty years or so, let's finally end this war.

Our new 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.

Also visit the following sites for freedom:

http://www.cato.org/
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://www.realpolichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/