October, 2021, Part 3, Political Class Insanity: Taking Bribes, Shredding the Constitution, Failing to Protect American Lives, and Another Defund the Police Disaster.

Before we get to today’s insanity, please consider the following proposition: as many of you know, the withdrawal from Afghanistan has been a historic and fatal endeavor. But the failure did not start just in the past few weeks, it has been a twenty year disaster. It has cost American taxpayers about a trillion dollars, has left thousands of our brave armed forces folks dead, maimed, or wounded and has resulted in an unknown but substantial number of civilian deaths.

Afghanistan has been a collective failure of multiple Presidential administrations and multiple sessions of Congress. Thus, please consider signing the petition below that calls for the immediate resignation of every member of Congress that has at least twenty years of service and the resignation of President Biden, Vice President Harris, and critical, and failed, members of the Biden Administration. They do not deserve to serve any longer given their miserable twenty year track record of death, destruction and waste in Afghanistan.

Also, if you are passionate about this topic and effort, feel free to pass the link along to others who might also feel the same way, i.e. incompetence should not be rewarded:

https://www.change.org/p/american-citizens-demand-immediate-congressional-resignations-for-the-twenty-year-afghanistan-debacle

Biden and others need to resign for dereliction of duty, incompetence and total lack of empathy. Nothing short of resignation is acceptable. Thank you.

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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) Far too many times we have discussed how pathetically and fatally wrong the whole “defund the police” movement was and still is. Police forces and the respect for police forces was slashed by American politicians over the past year or so, resulting in increased violence, crime and deaths in American cities across the country.

Austin, Texas is just the latest city to be hit by the increased violence as a result of the increased idiocy of the city’s politicians:

• There have been 60 homicides in Austin so far this year.
• This more than any other year out of the 61 years that the police department has kept such records.
• This year’s homicide rate is 6.2 per 100,000 records, up from 5.0 in 2020, a 24% increase, and 4.2 homicides in 2016.
• According to a local news report: "The city's police force is also stretched thin, with officer shortages and a large chunk of the budget being cut."
• City politicians cancelled police department cadet classes and stripped a whopping $150 million out of the department’s $434 million budget, more than a third.
• According to the Austin American-Statesman: "Several acknowledge that the department is now left with a bare-bones patrol staff suffering unprecedented attrition. The council has reinstated cadet classes, but the first graduates won’t hit the streets until spring. The department has about 1,800 officers, roughly the same number it had in 2016."
• As a result of this political insanity, police forces no longer respond to “non-emergency” law breaking like theft, prostitution, burglary, etc.
• In these non-emergency cases, residents have to call 311, the city government number, and in some cases have had to wait weeks to get any help.

Disgusted citizens have launched an action committee, "Save Austin Now,” to get a proposition put on the ballot that would require that the police department in the city be staffed to have at least two police officers for each 100,000 residents.

Despite this common sense approach to the problem, the group has been met with resistance from city leaders, organizations, and activists that somehow put forth the ridiculous argument that increasing the size of the police force would not make the city safer.

There is no cure for stupid, as Austin politicians and their wacky defund the police effort has shown. We have asserted many, many times that a very basic function of government is to protect the lives and property of law abiding citizens. If a government entity cannot perform that primary function then it is a failure regardless of how well it does any other city function.

2) And the increase in crime is not restricted to Austin:

• According to the latest FBI crime statistics, murders in the country increased over 29% in 2020 vs. 2019.
• This is one of the largest single year increases in the country’s history.
• There were 21,570 murders in 2020, an increase of 4,901 vs. 2019.

Yeah, the defund the police effort has worked out just fine for the criminals, not so much for the victims.

3) The Obama administration was not a friend of the Constitution:

• It tracked down and killed American citizens around the world that were considered enemies or terrorists without giving those Americans their right to a trial and due process.
• They spied on journalists without court warrants or reasons, disrespecting and ignoring the First Amendment.
• They spied on millions of American citizens without court warrants or reasons, further disrespecting the First Amendment.
• They altered or faked information in warrant submissions to get the wiretapping court approval they needed.
• They used the IRS to harass political opponents, violating their First and Fourth Amendment rights.

And the examples of the lawlessness just keep on coming:

• Carter Page is a former Trump political campaign official.
• His work history included working with the CIA, the FBI, and the State Department.
• Given his work history, it is highly doubtful that he was in cahoots with Russian agents or sources, he probably had to undergo extensive background checks to work at the above agencies.
• But none of this information was provided by Obama’s agents when they applied for secret FISA warrants to spy on Page during Trump’s campaign.
• That warrant was an integral part of the Obama fake conspiracy to make it show that the Trump campaign was involved with Russian spies, a fairy tale that has been shown to be nothing more than a political ploy on Obama’s part.
• According to the Federalist, the FISA court “found violations of the government’s duty of candor in all four applications” and that the government “must temporarily retain, and potentially use and disclose, the information collected, largely in the context of ongoing or anticipated litigation.”
• In other words, Obama and his people broke the law and violated a basic tenet of the Constitution.

What was once a respected government agency, one the very few, the FBI has devolved into a political hack government entity that has injected intself into the nation’s politics and not in a good, lawful, or Constitutional way.

4) We have shown many times that the corruption and greed of the American political class is not just with the politicians serving in DC, that politicians at all levels of government have a great history of corruption:

• The former mayor of Fall River, Massachusetts, Jasiel Correia, was recently sentenced to six years in prison after he was found guilty of corruption.
• He was elected mayor at the young age of 23 but his age was not a barrier to his corruption.
• He was found guilty of taking bribes from marijuana companies that wanted to open pot shops in his town.
• The judge in the case found the ex-mayor’s behavior reprehensible: “What I have before me is an absolute lack of remorse,a corrosive crime, it undercuts, it eviscerates a community. If we can’t trust each other, if we can’t trust our government, where are we? This is at the core of who we are...City Hall was for sale,”
• Correia claims he is innocent and although a few charges were eventually reversed and dropped, he is still likely going to prison for the charges that still remain.

The American political class, always putting themselves first rather than the people they represent.

Another day of American political class insanity: taking bribes, shredding the Constitution, failing to protect American lives, and another defund the police disaster.

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

 

 

Putin's Russia, Obama's America: Mirror Images Of Corruption, Cronyism and Waste? Part 3

Last week we did a post on how the political class corruption undermining the financial integrity of the Russian Olympics in Sochi were really not that different than the rampant and growing level of political class corruption in America. Besides listing some general areas of politicians’ corruption, we went into detail on how the Obama administration was basically bequeathing ambassadorships on people who had had no international diplomatic experience but who had raised at least half a million dollars for his past political campaigns. That post can be accessed at:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2014/02/putins-russia-obamas-america-mirror.html

As soon as that post went live, word came out of New Orleans that former Mayor Ray Nagin had been convicted on a whopping twenty counts of illegalities including bribery, wire fraud, and kickbacks. The depth of the corruption was quite unbelievable, the details of which can be reviewed at:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2014/02/putins-rusia-obamas-america-mirror.html

So within two days, we examined major corruption examples at the local government/political level in New Orleans, at the Federal government/political level in Washington D.C., and the international government/political level in Russia and the Olympics. But as soon as that corruption was documented, two other major pieces of political class corruption came to the forefront, one example at the government bureaucracy level and one at the Congressional level:

1) The fabulous website, Bankrupting America, reported on February 14, 2014 on how the Obama economic stimulus program is still costing the American taxpayers millions and millions of dollars many years after it was supposed to be terminated: 

• Although the stimulus program and spending was supposed to last just two years, taxpayer money is still flowing from it and instances of fraud are still being reported, according to The Dallas Morning News.
• The paper recently reported that, “The top administrator [Joe White] of a chain of hospitals that collapsed under the ownership of a North Texas physician [Dr. Tariq Mahmood] faces charges that he defrauded the Federal government of nearly $800,000 in stimulus funds.”
• White allegedly “falsely certified” documents that made his hospital eligible “to receive stimulus rewards for switching from paper medical records to an electronic system.” 
• In addition to defrauding the government and the taxpayer, he may have accomplished the fraud using an employee’s stolen personal information. 
• Rather than using the stimulus funds to make the switch from paper to electronic records, hospital employees have told the government the hospital pocketed the money and “continued to use paper and uncertified technology.”
• The newspaper says White and Mahamood could face time in prison for their actions. Mahmood has pled not guilty while White has yet to enter a plea.
• The Dallas Morning News said the stimulus program that provided the funds has “major weaknesses. Care providers’ records are not screened as part of the reward process….a 2012 report by the inspector general of the U.S. Health and Human Services Department advised the funding government agency to obtain supporting documentation from some providers before paying them.”
• In typical bungling government fashion, the funding agency, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) did not take the inspector general’s advice. 
• The article reported that the Federal agency (CMS) “balked, citing concerns that doing so would create an ‘up-front burden’ for hospitals and would delay payments.” So the good news is that the taxpayer payments were not delayed, the bad news is that the taxpayer payments were obtained and wasted under false pretenses.

More taxpayer money wasted through corruption, fraud, and incompetence, years after the taxpayer spigot should have been turned off.

Many times the fraud and corruption is not as blatant as the Dallas hospital ripoff scam was. Consider the much more subtle moves of Comcast Corp., the largest cable company in the U.S. Comcast want to merge with its main competitor, Time Warner Inc. Time Warner is the second largest cable provider in the country.

Since the merger deal would further consolidate the telecommunications industry, it is likely to face tough and difficult scrutiny from Federal government officials. The legitimate and major concern is that the merger would raise monopoly and antitrust concerns at the Justice Department. It would also come under scrutiny from a public interest perspective at the Federal Communications Commission. Serious stuff with far reaching ramifications on consumers across the country.

But alas, Comcast probably has that covered. It has been among the top corporate donors to members of Congress and the perpetual reelection campaigns over the past few years. If you follow the money, as documented by the MapLight analysis of campaign contributions to members of Congress, from PACs and employees of Comcast Corp., from January 1, 2001 - December 31, 2012 via the OpenSecrets.org website, you will see that Comcast has

been focusing their contributions on members of the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology. 

It is probably not a coincidence that this committee which has jurisdiction over the Federal Communications Commission:

• House members of the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology received $853,525 from Comcast from January 1, 2001 - December 31, 2012. 
• Contributions from Comcast to House members serving in the 109th, 110th, 111th and 112th Congresses totaled $6,678,446 from January 1, 2001 - December 31, 2012. 
• Representative Greg Walden., Chairman of the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology has received $53,000 from Comcast from January 1, 2001 - December 31, 2012. 
• Representative John Dingell, has received $100,775 from Comcast from January 1, 2001 - December 31, 2012. This is more than any other member of the House of Representatives. 

It is probably not a coincidence that Dingell also is a member of the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology.

Disgusting and disgraceful corruption disguised as campaign contributions. Comcast is paying out millions of dollars in the very safe bet of receiving billions of dollars worth of government leeway in their market dealings with Time Warner, the nation’s consumers and citizens be damned. Do we really think that these Congressional members would be receiving money from Comcast if they were in charge, of say, agricultural matters? No way.

Three short days of political class corruption reviews from around the world, five prime examples of how citizens get screwed:

• Russian taxpayers funding the corruption, bribery, kickbacks and cost overruns at the Russian Olympic.
• American foreign policy interests being sacrificed with diplomatic novices staffing ambassador posts simply because they raised election money for Obama.
• Local New Orleans residents being shafted by a long time local politician, now convicted, who looks to have been heavily into kickbacks, bribery, wire fraud, and other crimes.
• The American taxpayer paying out its wealth in a stimulus program that should have died years ago, to a corrupt hospital administrator via an inept government agency.
• Corporate election campaign donors to corrupt politicians who are likely to look more favorably on those donor’s corporate needs than the needs and rights of cable service users.

As you can see, political class corruption takes many forms, from plain incompetence to serious greed. Somewhere along the line we have allowed a class of people to take over our political processes and turn those processes inwards to their own gain and away from the benefit of citizens and taxpayers. Whereas politics used to be a means to an end, I.e. get elected to promote positive change in the lives of the citizens, getting elected is now just a means in itself, get elected to stay elected to stay in the money, the good of the country be damned.

And the real shame is that a few simple steps could reverse this whole downward spiral of corruption, greed, and lack of ethics, steps that were outlined in “Love My Country, Loathe My Government:”

1. Step 1 - Reduce Federal government spending by 10% a year for five consecutive years - if there is less Federal money to waste, the amount of corruption involving less money should go down substantially.
2. Step 6 - allow only individual citizens to contribute to political campaigns, eliminating the contributions of PACs, unions, corporations, and lobbyists. This eliminates the problems like the Comcast bribes described above.
3. Step 7 - Only allow individuals to contribute to political Senate or House of Representative political candidates that represent them directly. For example, somebody living in New Jersey could no not make a contribution to a candidate in Kansas.
4. Step 34 - Hold House and Senate committee members accountable for their respective areas of responsibility, removing them form their cherished committee posts if they do not meet minimal performance standards. The taxpayers and citizens would determine if minimal performance standards were met, helping to minimize the overwhelming influence of entities like Comcast do today.
5. Step 39 - Implement term limits for all Federal politicians, one and done. With term limits, there would be no need to continually be at Comcast’s and other corporate donors mercy since there would be no need to continually raise campaign money for a continual reelection cycle.

Five simple steps to return the power to the people by taking it away from the rigged election processes that are controlled by selfish and self serving politicians who are financed and beholden to entities like Comcast. Failure to implement these freedom restoring steps just makes us look like an Americanized version of Putin’s Russian thugocracy.

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

Gift Giving Continues - More Reid Bribes For Health Care Votes Come To Light

Even though yesterday's post was supposed to cover the major special deals/bribes that Senator Reid doled out in order to buy the Senate votes he needed to pass this horrible health care reform bill, a day later more details of Reid's deal making have come to light (as reported in an online Wall Street journal article today):

• A Florida Democratic Senator got a special $3.5 billion grant for that state's Medicare Advantage program, other states did not get a comparable grant.
• A Vermont Independent Senator, who usually votes with the Democrats, got $600 million in additional money for his state's Medicare program, most other states did not get a comparable increase in Medicare money.
• A Massachusetts Senator got $500 million in additional money for his state's Medicare program, most other states did not get a comparable increase in Medicare money. Looks like the Vermont Senator is a better negotiator though. He got 20% more money for a state with a considerably smaller population.
• Democratic Senators in Nebraska and Michigan were able to get together so that the Blue Cross/Blue Shield companies in their states got exemptions from paying an insurance tax, other states did not get the same exemptions for their Blue Cross/Blue Shield companies.
• Longshoremen get an exemption from paying a 40% excise tax on their so-called "Cadillac" health insurance programs, other Americans with Cadillac programs did not get the tax exemption.

It really does get sickening after a while. This is not health care reform. It is outright bribery and blackmail:

• The current Senate bill does nothing to fundamentally reduce costs.
• The current Senate health bill does not have any significant tort reform, tort reform that has significantly reduced health care costs in several states. Lack of tort reform indicates the strength of the lawyer/ABA lobbyists with Democratic lawmakers.
• The current health care bill does not address the serious amount of waste and fraud (billions of dollars a year) in the current system (more on this in the coming days).
• The current health care bill produces a significant reduction in freedom for most young Americans, forcing millions of them to sign up for health care policies that most do not need, given their better than average health. All this health care plan does is steal wealth from young Americans and use it to insure other Americans without reducing the underlying industry cost problems.
• While the insurance industry now cannot deny coverage to people, they will get rich on the estimated additional 30 million new people forced to buy health care insurance. The bill does not decrease costs.
• And finally, there is a serious mistreatment of the majority of Americans with small, special interest groups getting special monetary treatment in order for their Senators to vote to approve the bill. Hopefully, someone can put together a class action suit under the Constitution's equal protection clause for those of us that do not live in those states (Montana, Vermont, Massachusetts and others) and those job categories (coal miners in Montana and longshoremen) but who now have to subsidize these special cases.

This is not democracy or acting for the good of the country. This is insanity.

Visit our website at www.loathemygovernment.com to order an autographed copy of the book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government -Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom and Destroying The American Political Class" and to sign up for the cause. The book is also available online at Amazon and Barnes And Noble.

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In the next few days we will review what some smart people, who have actually read the bill, have to say about its components and likely impact on every American's life. Happy holidays!