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)Unfortunately, one of the most recurring topics of conversation in this blog over the years has been the ever rising violence and crime rates in the city of Chicago. For years, the city has experienced more homicides than any other American city. And for years, the local political class has never had an answer to combat the violence.
And the latest mayor, Lori Lightfott, has probably been the most inept of all. Search her name via the search box above and you will get any number of posts highlighting her ineffectiveness and ignorance in resolving any of the city’s problems.
Now, she recently put forth a plan, “Our City, Our Safety,” to combat the high crime rates in the city, a plan that includes the following components:
$85 million on violence intervention, including victim services, street outreach and other violence reduction programs.
$62 million for affordable housing and homeless programs.
$80 million for assistance to families and youth jobs.
$40 million for health and wellness programs.
$114.6 million for community development and parks.
$30 million for small business.
Now, these sound like worthy programs. But does anyone really think that a wellness program is going to curtail the street violence? Does anyone really think that having nicer parks is going to make the city gangbamngers go docile and turn away from their life of crime? Does anyone think that getting shelter for a homeless person is going to stop the homicides? Again, these are, in theory, worthy programs, but to think that violent criminals are going to stop being violent because of a reduction in homelessness, having nicer parks, and getting well via new wellness programs?
Again, worthy ideas but not for curtailing violence. The Chicago district attorney and the political class need to finally crackdown on criminal activity and not coddle criminals like they have in the past. And possibly even consider an idea that any left leaning, liberal politician would hate which allows private, law abiding citizens to protect themselves via their Second Amendment rights.
Chicago has some of the toughest gun control laws in the country and that stance has been a failure: criminals do not follow laws which means gun control laws do nothing more than disarm private citizens while allowing criminals to continue to be armed. Nothing else has worked to curtail the city violence, maybe it is time to realize that gun control does not work either.
Oh, one other point: maybe defunding the police department in Chicago, like other cities, was not the right idea at the right time.
2)Ever since Biden opened the southern border to millions of illegal immigrants, there has been a tremendous uptick in the number of illegal drugs that drug cartels from around the world have been pushing through our porous border. The Federal authorities have confiscated record amounts of illegal drugs at the border which probably means record amounts of illegal drugs have not been stopped and are now flooding the country.
Consider the following statistics:
For the first time ever, the Federal government reports that more fentanyl than heroin has been stopped at the country's borders.
Last year, 11,201 pounds of fentanyl was seized coming over the border compared to 5,400 pounds of heroin.
And these are not the only drugs flooding across the border since the Feds also stopped 319,447 pounds of marijuana, 190,861 pounds of methamphetamine, 97,638 pounds of cocaine, and 10,848 pounds of ketamine.
The amount of fentanyl stopped more than doubled in 2021 vs. 2020 when the borders were far more secure.
And there is no doubt that the ever increasing number of drugs coming across.
The border will eventually end up killing far more American citizens than previously, as indicated by Washington Examiner reporting: “Not only were fentanyl seizures at the highest level ever recorded, but fentanyl overdoses within the United States also hit new highs, indicating the success that transnational criminal organizations had in pushing their deadly products to the public.”
Froom May, 2020 to May 2021, over 100,000 Americans died of a drug overdose, a 12 month record of deaths.
Fentanyl and related substances were involved in almost two thirds of those deaths.
Not surprising since Fentanyl is considered 80 to 100 times stronger than morphine.
Fentanyl now kills more Americans every year than suicide, covid, and car accidents and that trend will probalby get worse as Biden leaves the border wide open to the cartels.
We have always contended that a very, very basic function of government is to protect the lives of every citizen. By blatantly ignoring the risk of open borders relative to the illicit fentanyl trade, Biden and his administration are guilty of dooming thousands of Americans to unnecessary deaths and addiction.
3)Maybe the reason that Chicago politicians never fix the violence and homicide problem in the city is that they are too busy allegedly being corrupt and being arrested for allegedly being corrupt:
Chicago alderman, Carrie Austin, was recently arrested and indicted by the Department of Justice, along with her chief of staff, for alleged bribery charges.
Besides being an alderman, she is also the Vice-Chair of Cook County Democratic Party of Illinois, Central State Committeeman, was a Delegate for President Barack Obama at the Democratic National Convention and also Vice Chairs the Chicago City Council Committee on Committees, Rules, and Ethics.
ABC News Chicago reported that she is facing “federal indictment alleging they conspired to receive home improvements from construction contractors who were seeking city assistance for a development project in Austin’s South Side Ward.”
She is also facing bribery conspiracy, using interstate facilities to promote bribery, and lying to the FBI.
According to the DOJ, “Starting in 2014 a construction company planned to construct a residential development in Austin’s ward at a cost of approximately $49.6 million. Under an agreement with the city, the company was responsible for making infrastructure improvements within the project, including construction of new interior streets, street lighting, landscaping, and sidewalk improvements, and was eligible to receive more than $10 million in tax increment financing and other payments from the city.’
The indictment alleges that Austin and her chief of staff got personal benefits from the construction company to benefit themselves including home improvements, furniture and appliances for Austin’s home.
Wonderful. Citizens in Chicago are being shot down in the street, often from random violence, and local politicians are allegedly taking advantage of their positions to enrich themselves rather than working on the issues facing everyone who lives in the city. The Chicago mayor puts forth programs that are socially worthy but will do little, if anything, to protect citizens’ lives. And Biden and the Federal government’s security failures at the southern border are going to continue to kill more and more Americans from the flood of illegal drugs flooding into the country. Failure upon failure upon failure.
