December, 2016, Part 8, Political Class Insanity: 100 of The Worst Uses Of Taxpayer Money

It has been almost a month since Donald Trump has been elected which means at some point in the future we may run out of material to talk about. With the demise of the Obama administration, eight years worth of wasteful and excessive spending for nothing in return, foreign affairs blunders, Obama Care disasters, and assorted other administration and government blunders and screwups might end with the onset of a new administration. Trump may usher in a new paradigm of government actions that are limited, effective, cost efficient, and protective of the Constitution. If so, then this blog would run out of material to discuss and would have to be shut down.

But I doubt it. Even if Trump is truly a different type of President, he is still fighting over 500 embedded and entrenched politicians in Congress and thousands and thousands of government bureaucrats who will not go peacefully into the night for the good of the country. I wish him well and hopefully he can fix at least some of the myriad of problems the American political class creates everyday but until then, enjoy the latest political class insanity from Washington and beyond:

In late November, 2016, Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma published his second annual “Federal Fumbles” report which pointed out the “100 ways the government dropped the ball” over the past year when it came to wasting taxpayer money on stupid efforts and programs. As you read some of the disgusting wastes of money below that he uncovered, keep in mind that these are some of the reasons why we currently have about a $20 TRILLION national debt and that nowhere in the Constitution does it say these are legitimate uses of taxpayer wealth:

-The NIH funded a $2 million, multi-year study about how kids don’t like to eat food that’s been sneezed on.

-The USDA proposed a regulation to require gas stations and convenience stores to sell items like tofu, shrimp, and almond milk if they want to continue accepting food stamps.

-The NSF funded grants, totaling nearly $500K, to find the connection between religion, politics, and cemeteries in 12th-century Iceland.

- The FWS offered a $180,000 grant for an outside group to develop an effective way to count and tag sea ducks.

- The NSF gave almost $200,000 to study 500-year-old fish bones in a Tanzanian city to determine the connection between food and social status.

- The NSF paid more than $2 million to find out whether climate change has impacted China’s giant panda population.

- The OPM continues to process retirement benefits for federal employees on paper.

- The NIH spent more than $1 million on a campaign to tell mothers to prevent their teenage daughters from tanning.

- Three federal agencies have combined to spend $495,000 to support a temporary exhibit to share the best of medieval smells.

- The Medicaid has made $142.7 billion in improper payments since 2009.

- The NEA provided a $60,000 grant to a group in Los Angeles to record the family history of immigrants to post online and air on public radio.

- The NIH provided nearly $500,000 for a program to send text messages to discourage chewing tobacco.

- The NEA provided a $35,000 grant to the City of San Francisco to assist with public housing option for artists.

- GSA awarded an almost $1 million contract to provide one photograph to be cut into six pieces and hung in a new federal courthouse in California.

- The State Department entered into an almost $800 million contract for the construction of two buildings in Afghanistan with deadly electrical wiring.

- The Air Force contracted to construct a new Ministry of Defense office building for the Afghan government, a project that took five years and more than $100 million more than originally agreed to.

- The NIH provided more than $10 million for a series of studies to learn that stress plays a role in illegal drug use.

- The federal government currently operates more than 100 separate mental health programs.

- The NSF invested more than $412,000 in research on a paper arguing that glaciers are best studied using feminist theories.

- Since 2008, DEA and DOD have invested almost $100 million to purchase and modify an airplane that may never fly.

- The NEA provided $90,000 in grants to help spark a debate on gender identity and roles in American society.

- Over the last 5 years, USDA made more than $300 billion in improper payments from 18 high-risk programs.

- The US Embassy in London offered $75,000 to bring 10 people to the US to show them how Americans volunteer and give back to their communities.

- The DHS began to update IT programs in 2003 and has made little progress despite already spending $180 million.

- NSF invested almost $200,000 in a study to find out how people respond to failure.

- Duplicating research from the private sector and the Department of Education, NSF provided almost $250,000 to find the best way to use technology to educate children.

- Since 2008 NIH has awarded $3 million in grant funding for the development of a 12-episode soap opera to encourage smarter decisions to prevent HIV/AIDS.

- The DOJ authorized $70 million-twice the amount necessary-to construct Tribal prisons in Arizona.

- The USAID has invested or committed to invest over $1 billion in projects for the Palestinian government, some of which are either unusable or the local government cannot maintain.

- The ATF spent more than $500,000 for 6 unmanned aerial vehicles that were ultimately unsuitable for ATF’s purposes.

- USAID created a $24 million, multi-year program to fund the creation of energy regulations in other countries.

- BOP contracts outside medical care for its prisoners sometimes at 385 percent higher cost than other federal departments.

- The NEH spent $250,000 for a traveling classroom on prison life.

- A recent JG audit of just three Air Force contracts at one base revealed contractors are likely paid tens of millions more than they earned for work they did not do.

- The IRS operates nine separate, overlapping, uncoordinated tax fraud prevention programs.

- The BLM announced a $750,000 funding opportunity to assess the impact of fire-prevention efforts in a single Idaho county.

- The OHS has taken 11 years and more than $3 billion to overhaul how Immigration Services processes applications from foreigners seeking to live in the US, yet the JG says, “little progress has been made.”

- Congress requires DOD to operate a completely duplicative health-care plan that costs more than $1 billion a year.

- The USDA spent $2 million to fund organic farming-a $43 billion industry.

- The NSF funded multiple grants to study fairness in our court system and to determine how rulings make people feel.

- Despite a Joint Chiefs order requiring military procurements of commercial satellites through a centralized DOD Agency, individual military services spend hundreds of millions to enter into their own contracts.

- TSA spent $47,400 to create a randomizing app to direct airline passengers to either enter the left or right line at the airport.

- Over the last five years, NIH has invested more than $1.5 million to conduct a study on the different health impacts of exercise and healthy eating on immigrants in Minnesota.

- The NEA spent $35,000 to fund an exhibit to show changes in Iranian art over the last 30 years.

- The Smithsonian announced a 3-year position for a historian to help the Institute document the impact of beer on American history.

Now ask yourself these questions in light of what the Washington political class are spending your tax money on:

• Would the $2 million the NIH spent on studying snot on kids meals have been better used if it had been returned to taxpayers?
• Would the almost $100 million spent by the DOD and DEA to purchase and modify an airplane that may never fly have been better spent to treat the millions of drug addicted Americans every year of which tens of thousands die from their addictions?
• Would the $495,000 spent to support a temporary exhibit to share the best of medieval smells have been better spent to house the hundreds of thousands of Americans that are homeless at any one time in this country?
• Would the almost $500k the NSF spent to find the connection between religion, politics, and cemeteries in 12th-century Iceland have been better spent to increase research for cures for such important diseases as cancer and dementia-type diseases, diseases that place massive cost burdens on the country and its citizens?
• Would the almost $200,000 the NSF spent to study 500-year-old fish bones in a Tanzanian city to determine the connection between food and social status have been better spent for job training for the millions of Americans that are in need of updated skills in the rapidly evolving economy of today?

You get the idea. We are taxed so heavily in this country and so many suffer in this country and yet the political class always finds a way to waste our tax money and not help those in need. Obama promised that once elected he would go through the Federal budget “line by line” to ferret out wasteful spending. It is pretty obvious from the above list that this was just another broken promise or outright lie since studying why kids do not like food that has been sneezed on should have never happened in this reality if he had actually done what he promised.

That will do it for this month’s political class insanity. More to come next month for sure.

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:


http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

October, 2016, Part 3, Political Class Insanity: Letting Animals Suffer and Die, Letting Human Beings Die, A Screwed Up Citizenship Process and More CNN Bias

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

The current monthly record for the number of posts that were needed to cover one month's worth of insanity is ten. We equaled that record last month when we needed ten days to cover one month’s worth of political class insanity. There is a very good chance that the ten day record could fall this month since as we get closer and closer to the election, the volume of ineptness grows almost exponentially. 

But today and for all of the posts this month, let’s start off with a welcome piece of honest political dialog. It comes from a State Department spokesperson. Mark Toner, who is about to start the daily State Department press briefing. In a joking matter, he makes the following quote: "Welcome to the State Department. I think we have some interns in the back. Welcome. Good to see you in this exercise in transparency and democracy." 

He then burst out laughing at his own quote, indicating he also knew what a joke the Obama administration has been, especially Mr. Toner’s State Department, when it comes to cover ups, lack of transparency, denial of Freedom of Information Act requests, the prosecution of whistleblowers, etc. But at least it was a little refreshing to finally hear some actual honesty out of Washington as we see from the actual clip of the news conference:

http://www.againstcronycapitalism.org/2016/08/when-even-the-state-department-spokesperson-cant-keep-a-straight-face-about-things-anymore-video/

With that context of honesty, let’s see what other insanity has been going down:

1) When the political class gets involved in any problem they often make the problem worse with their actions and “solutions.” Kristin Dattilo and Mandy Levin, writing for the National Review, nicely highlighted a prime example of stupidity in law making. Details of their research found that:

• In 1984, the Federal government enacted a law, “The National Organ Transplant Act,” (NOTA) which made it illegal for someone to donate, for monetary compensation, non-renewable human parts, e.g. kidneys, for use by patients in need.
• Renewable human parts, blood, sperm, eggs, etc. were excluded from the law since, they are... renewable.
• Unfortunately, NOTA included bone marrow in the list of non-renewable body parts even though bone marrow is totally renewable.
• Now, every year, between 2,000 and 3,000 Americans die because they cannot find a bone marrow match to fight back against such diseases as leukemia and other blood diseases.
• Unfortunately, only 30% of patients in need of a bone marrow transplant can find compatibility within their own families, meaning that 70% of those in need have to find a bone marrow transplant from a non-family member that voluntarily and without compensation donates bone marrow.
• Research by economists cited in the article showed that offering compensation for donation of blood and other renewable body parts significantly increased donations levels.
• But NOTA makes it illegal to do the same compensation schemes with renewable bone marrow, a ban that, as we cited above, kills thousands of Americans every year.

A stupid bureaucratic situation that one would think would be easy enough to rectify. However, it has been 32 years since the law was passed and no one in Washington has been able to make this simple change in the law. Thus, even when they try to do something good in Washington, they always manage to screw it up. This time by not being smart enough to realize that bone marrow is renewable, it is not a kidney. As a result, Americans die.

2) Speaking of not being able to do even simple things, consider this recent example of Congressional incompetence. Two Senators, one Republican and one Democrat, put together a simple piece of legislation that would make it a Federal felony to distribute recorded materials that showed animals being being tortured or killed. As a dog lover, this seems like a no brainer, a rare bipartisan burst of Congressional cooperation. Who in their right mind does not want to protect animals?

Well, apparently Harry Reid, Senator from Nevada, is not in his right mind. Under silly Senate rules, he has been able to single-handedly stop the animal protection legislation in its tracks because he has a hissy fit with another, totally unrelated piece of Senate work. 

This situation is so pathetic on at least two levels. First, when a single Senator can use a rule to stop legislation against the will of the majority of the Senate, it is a ridiculous rule. Second, since the Washington political class is so inept that it cannot even pass this simple piece of legislation, protecting animals in a very small way, it is no surprise that they have been incapable of passing legislation that actually resolves some of the major issues facing the country today.

3) Last week we did two posts on how perverted and biased the mainstream media has become in reporting the news in this country. One of the worst violators of truth and integrity in reporting the news was CNN, the Clinton News Network. Those two posts can be accessed at:

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CNN likely proved its bias right after the first debate between Trump and Clinton. According to a compilation by the Newsmax website, 21 polls done right after the debate said that Trump “won” the debate including:

• Time: Trump 58%, Clinton 42%
• CBS New York: Trump 24K votes, 17,600 votes
• San Diego Tribune: Trump 66%, Clinton 34%
• Slate: Trump 54%, Clinton 46%
• Variety: Trump 51%, Clinton 48%
• Fortune: Trump 51%, Clinton 49%
• CNBC: Trump 51%, Clinton 49%

Even though mainstream media outlets that usually hate Trump and go after him at every chance, actually admitted that Trump won, somehow CNN claimed the exact opposite: CNN said their polling showed that Clinton won the debate by a whopping 62% to only 27% by Trump. 

So were the CNN findings, so contrary to the vast majority of other polls, a statistical fluke or did they have the nerve to so blatantly fake these results? Based on the two links above, I vote for blatant fakes. If so, this is pure insanity where a major media outlet is so in bed with polticial operatives in this country. Pathetic.

4) We often try to determine what is the most inept Federal government organization from an incompetence, inefficiency, and corruptness perspective. The top candidates usually include the Social Security Administration, the IRS, the Defense Department and the Department of Homeland Security. Today it looks like it will be the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) day to shine in the area of incompetence.

According to an article by Alicia A. Caldwell, writing for the Associated Press on September 19, 2016, an audit of the DHS found that this Federal government agency had mistakenly granted citizenship to over 850 immigrants from countries who we have serious national security issues with or high rates of immigration fraud with and who had been under pending deportation orders. Understand, these people did not just have their visas extended, the Federal government made them actual citizens even though the same Federal government wanted to deport them back to their home countries.

The DHS inspector general concluded that these immigrants used different names of birth dates to apply for citizenship but that such fraudulent behavior was not caught because their fingerprints were missing from government databases. Inspector General John Roth said these people “were all from "special interest countries" — those that present a national security concern for the United States — or neighboring countries with high rates of immigration fraud.” The audit report also found that there could be upwards of another 315,000 other such cases that are going through the citizenship process but who have deportation orders hanging over them.

As is often the case when it comes to government ineptness, the DHS knew about these types of problems way back in 2008 but eight years later the problem still exists despite the hundreds of billions of dollars the DHS has had at its disposal over those eight years. As a result of this inability to fix what it knew is broken, we know that some of the deportation-ready immigrants have attained jobs in security sensitive areas such as airports and law enforcement since they are now regular U.S. citizens.

That will do it for today’s insanity: granting citizenship to the very people we want to deport, more shady journalism from CNN, a Senator fails to protect those that torture and murder animals, and Congress flunks a basic biology test, resulting in the death of thousands of Americans. More insanity to come the following days.

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:


http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

July, 2016, Part 3, Political Class Insanity: DHS Fail, Obama Care Fail, and Other Poltiical Class Fails

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. In fact, last month we set a record, needing ten full posts to cover it all.

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.

It looks like our politicians have been especially insane over the past month or so let’s continue with the latest insanity from today’s American politicians:

1) Einstein once said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. A perfect example of this principle was discussed in the January, 2016 issue of Reason magazine. Barack Obama in the past, along with HIllary Clinton today, have been hot to trot to have Federal taxpayers provide universal pre-kindergarten funding for every kid in the country. Clinton’s justification and claim, unfounded as it is, is that universal pre-kindergarten would have significant societal benefits. This was the same claim that Obama made several years ago.

But as with many politicians’ grand claims, this one apparently is also false. We have already proven Obama’s claim wrong several years ago using research done by his own Health and Human Services (HHS) organization that showed Head Start daycare not only did not provide an educational boost to attendees as promised, in some cases, it actually retarded the intellectual development of kids that were in Head Start. That original discussion can be seen at:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2013/01/failing-our-kids-again-massive-fraud.html

And now new research from Mark Lipsey, Dale Farran, and Sandra Jo Wilson of Vanderbilt University show that the HHS study from several years ago still applies to today’s pre-kindergarten programs, despite what claims Clinton makes. Their research including the following components:

• They studied a group of more than 1,000 kids over several years that were divided up into a pre-kindergarten program and another group that did not attend any pre-kindergarten programs.
• Thus, we have a classic test and control experiment.
• Kids in the pre-kindergarten group did much better on a series of early learning measures than the other groups of kids…..until they got to actual kindergarten.
• By the end of the first year in school, "there were no longer significant differences between the two groups on any achievement measures.”
• In other words, the positive impact of pre-kindergarten lasted no more than a year.
• Even worse, by the end of the second grade, kids in the pre-kindergarten group actually performed slightly worse than the control group.

In other words, in this study, within two years kids were made dumber by going to pre-kindergarten vs. those that did not. These results are consistent with other studies we have already discussed including the link above. Thus, if Clinton wants us to pay for universal pre-kindergarten, at least be honest with the taxpayers and tell us what we are really funding, according to the researchers: nothing more than a Federal babysitting program with at best, no long term positive benefits to society and the kids and at worse, a potential dumbing down of those that attend such programs.

But Hillary being honest….might be a stretch.

2) Obama Care was supposed to resolve the major problem of ever escalating health care costs in this country. We have proven many times in the past several years how this legislation has failed epically to achieve that goal. To review the many failures of Obama Care, under the phrase “unfolding disaster” in the box above for access to dozens and dozens of past blog posts that proved how bad Obama Care has failed. Alternatively, just go through the past months' and years' buttons listed on the right side of this page since every month for years we have had to dedicate at least a few posts every month to the failures.

We have made the case that one of the reasons why Obama Care is a massive failure is that it never addressed the underlying root causes of our high healthcare costs. It tried to apply a health insurance solution to a public health problem. And as always, apply a solution to the wrong problem is never successful

One of the major root causes of our high healthcare costs is the epidemic of obesity in this country. Obesity leads to a myriad of health problems including heart disease, diabetes, strokes, failing knees, failing hips, etc. Until this and other root causes are mitigated, healthcare costs will continue to escalate. And relief is nowhere in sight and certainly be providing by Obama Care, three years after its launch.

According to the latest CDC study, more than 40% of American women are obese, not overweight, and that figure has jumped up 5% over the past decade. American men have held steady at a still high 35% over the same period. Without addressing this root cause, Obama Care has no chance of attaining its original objective of “bending the cost curve” of healthcare in this country. 

But Washington not knowing or addressing root causes of a problem is why we are still losing the war on drugs, why we still under educate our kids, why we still have not national energy strategy, why our borders still leak, etc.

3) We often wonder what Federal organization is the worst run, most inept. Usually the TSA, the Social Security Administration, the Veterans Administration and the Department of Homeland Security rise to the top of the incompetence list. Today we have a great candidate in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Keep in mind as you read the following insanity that this organization is supposed to keep us safe from terrorists.

According to reporting from the Western Journalism website by Scott Watson: 

• A DHS employee strolled into DHS headquarters with a gun, a knife, an infrared camera, pepper spray, and handcuffs.
• The employee, Jonathan Weinke, has/had top secret clearance and is now under investigation for conspiracy to commit workplace violence.
• He has also been charged with carrying a pistol without a license.
• Maybe not the smartest criminal or terrorist of all time, Weinke came under suspicion when he went through the regular security measure at work when his backpack was run through a security screening machine which is when security officers found a folding knife with a 3-inch blade, two hand-held radios, pepper spray, an infrared camera and a set of handcuffs.
• As a result, a search of his body resulted in finding a five shot hand gun with dangerous hollow point bullets. 
• A Federal search warrant lists potential charges as “attempt and conspiracy to assassinate, kidnap or assault a member of the executive branch of the government, false impersonation of a federal officer and possession of a firearm in a federal facility.”

Feel safe and secure with DHS personnel in charge, people that cannot even prevent their own employees from bringing weapons to the DHS workplace?

4) We have often pointed out the sick reality that the Obama administration has put thousands and thousands of Federal government regulations in place during the past seven and a half years. We have always asked two questions from these outrageous number of new regulations:

• Are we to believe that the previous 43 Presidential administrations were so inept that the Obama administration had to fix the world with thousands and thousands of new, likely useless, bureaucratic regulations?
• How much time, effort, and wealth are diverted by business owners and their employees from the real economy to comply with these regulations and how much do these regulations cost the American consumer and businesses?
• A recent Heritage Foundation article by Milton Padilla and Tori Whiting took a shot at what that cost to the country is of these again, probably useless regulations.
• Their article’s title asserts that “Obama’s 229 Major Regulations Cost $108 Billion Each Year.”
• The 229 major regulations are the total so-called major regulations since the beginning of his Presidency.
• Just the 43 major regulations Obama put into place from 2015 increased Federal government regulations costs by over $22 billion a year as estimated by the Heritage Foundation’s Red Tape Rising” study of Federal government regulations.
• Even more scary is that Obama has another 144 major regulations in the process of development that could be put into effect before he leaves office early next year.
• The biggest regulation whores include the EPA, the Department of Transportation, and the Department of Energy.
• The cost of $108 billion a year comes out to almost $900 a year for every American household, $900 that cannot be spent on vacations, dinners, new cars, etc., i.e. $900 that cannot be used to expand the economy and create jobs for unemployed Americans.
• Since the annual Index Of Economic Freedom shows that economic freedom in the United States has declined eight of the past nine years, roughly the length of the Obama administration, it leads one to make the reasonable conclusion that as Obama has increased regulatory burden on Americans and American businesses, our economic freedom and vitality have been declining.

This over regulation of America may explain that despite an $800 billion economic stimulus plan, record low energy costs, and a Fed that pumped trillions of dollars into the economy, Obama has presided over the most anemic recession recovery in a very, very long time. Quite possibly, putting thousands and thousands of regulations in place, regulations that divert energy and resources into government compliance rather than economic vitality, is the main reason why the Obama administration’s economic performance has been so pathetic.

That will do it for today’s insanity: gross over regulation, a Department of Homeland Security that cannot protect itself, another Obama Care fail, and how Einstein corrected predicted Federal government’s performance with pre-kindergarten failures. More insanity tomorrow.

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

March, 2016, Part 2, Political Class Insanity: EPA Coverup, John Kerry Cluelessness, Hillary Does Black Voiceovers, and More

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.

Let’s get started with the latest insanity from today’s American politicians:

1) I am sure many of you are already just as tired as me with all of the political tomfoolery going on from both Democrats and Republicans as it relates to the 2016 Presidential campaign. So many promises on how government is going to solve all of our problems, despite government, and the politicians and bureaucrats that operate it, having never resolved any major issue in the past five decades regardless of who is in office. 

But somehow the same people that got us into these problems, Clinton, Sanders, Rubio, Cruz, etc., are the very people that were in office when these problems went unresolved or were made worse. But somehow as President, they want us to believe that all of a sudden they have the magic elixir that they have been hiding to fix all of our problems.

But maybe Americans are finally figuring out that those who want to be President are not worthy of that office or any other government office. According to an article from Steve Ralston, writing for Joe The Plumber website on January 8, 2016, a recent Gallup poll found that:

• 69% of those polled said that “big government” is the biggest threat to America vs. “big business” and “big labor.”
• This feeling of disgust with government is strong the political spectrum with 88% of Republicans, 67% of Independents, and 53% of Democrats all believing big government is the biggest threat to the country.
• This is the second highest disgust level with big government in the 50 year history of the poll, second only to the 72% level from 2013.
• Back in 1985 only 50% thought that big government was the biggest problem.
• During the Obama Presidency, the average finding in the poll finding for big government being the biggest threat to the country has been 64% vs. 56% over the Bush Presidency.

So sad that Americans think government is so dangerous to their lives and their freedoms. But the article goes on to cite other polls that show further disgust with the political class:

• A related poll asked, “Is corruption widespread throughout the government in this country, or not?” which found that a whopping 75% of those polled believe it is. 
• That 75% finding is up substantially from the 67% level from 2007.
• Confidence in Congress is at a historical low of 8%. 
• 49% of those polled claim that government poses an immediate threat to rights and freedoms, up from just 30% in 2003.

So sad that our political processes have fallen so far that we view our government processes and those that operate it as corrupt and the main danger to our freedoms. Insane.

2) ISIS has become the most vicious, blood thirsty, and well financed terrorist group in the world. They regularly behead people for trivial reasons, they enslave and sell women and children, they throw homosexuals off of towers, stone women to death for the smallest things, and have carried out terrorist attacks around the world. They are bad, vicious, and dangerous.

So what is Secretary of State John Kerry doing to mobilize the world’s forces of good to contain and eradicate the ISIS threat? According to the LA Times, Kerry recently flew to LA to meet with Hollywood executives to discuss various topics including what to do with ISIS. Yes, the same people that gave us “Weekend At Bernie’s” are now consulting with the Federal government on how to combat ISIS. Rather than consulting with foreign governments and allies, military experts, our intelligence agencies, and Middle East experts, we are asking Hollywood for their views on combating terrorism. 

And even sadder, Kerry thought the meeting went great, uploading a photo of the meeting on Twitter, saying, "Great convo w studio execs in LA. Good to hear their perspectives & ideas of how to counter #Daesh [ISIS] narrative." The meeting included executives from NBCUniversal, Warner Bros., DreamWorks, Sony Pictures, Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox, and the Walt Disney Co. This is what passes for strategy in the Obama administration, Hollywood. Pathetically insane. 

3) We have not discussed the insanity emanating from the Hillary Clinton Presidential campaign. If we did, between the Benghazi lies, the email server lies, the mishandling of top secret government documents lies, and a whole set of other Hillary lies, we could be writing 25 hours a day. However, we did pick out one HIllary episode that is particularly pathetic.

Chuck Ross writing for the Daily Caller on February 16, 2016, reported on how Hillary Clinton imitated an African-American stereotype voice. She was meeting with Al Sharpton, looking to get his endorsement for her Presidential effort. At the end of the meeting she commented, “My lips are sealed!” using a black stereotype accent. 

If you or I did such a thing in front of a liberal politician, we would likely be accused of racism. Hillary Clinton does it and everyone present laughs. Just another example of a politician telling us what to do while they do just the opposite. We are supposed to obey Obama Care but the Washington politicians break the law to subsidize their health insurance costs. We are supposed to give up our guns while they are protected by armed guards. We are supposed to be sensitive to other races while they can imitate the stereotypes of those races. Pathetic. 

To see Clinton’s racist voice over go to:

http://dailycaller.com/2016/02/16/ma-lips-ah-sealed-hillary-uses-black-accent-in-chat-with-sharpton/#ixzz411r70Eho

4) Staying with “do as I say and not as I do,” consider recent news regarding a massive coal mine spill in Colorado. Recall that the EPA screwed up a while ago and allowed a massive flood of pollution to pollute some pristine waterways in Colorado. If an American citizen had done even a fraction of that type of pollution, they would likely already be in jail. But since government employees committed the pollution act, no one has gone to jail.

In fact, a Congressional report recently found that two different Federal agencies published misinformation and inconsistent explanations of the Federal government’s role and incompetence in the Gold King Mine water contamination last summer. That contamination involved 3 million gallons of water polluted with mercury, arsenic, and other metals flowing into creeks and rivers near Silverton, Colorado.

Congressman Rob Bishop, chairman of the Natural Resources Committee stated that: “This report peels back one more layer in what many increasingly view as a pattern of deception on the part of the EPA and [Department of Interior].” The report concluded that explanations from the EPA and Department of Interior “offer shifting accounts of the events leading up to the spill and contain numerous errors, omissions, and inconsistencies, some of which are not attributable to error or incompetence alone.”

Errors, omissions, inconsistencies, errors, incompetence. Sounds like a typical government effort and operation. Unfortunately.

5) We pay the Federal government and the Washington political class billions and billions of dollars every year to protect our lives, our families, and our property. You would hope that being paid that much money would encourage those in charge to do the best job possible in providing that protection. And as always, hoping for hope from American politicians never works out.

Consider a recent article national defense by Sandy Fitzgerald, writing for the NewsMax website:

• A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official is on public record claiming that he was ordered by his superiors to purge records of people with ties to Islamic terrorists.
• The former official, Patrick Hanley, was recently quoted in an article by The Hill: "After leaving my 15-year career at DHS, I can no longer be silent about the dangerous state of America’s counter-terror strategy, our leaders’ willingness to compromise the security of citizens for the ideological rigidity of political correctness—and, consequently, our vulnerability to devastating, mass-casualty attack."
• Haney claims that the Obama administration has "engaged in a bureaucratic effort" to purge any raw material and intelligence that DHS has been gathering for years, leaving the United States more open to massive terrorist attacks.
• He also claims that, "Even worse, going forward, my colleagues and I were prohibited from entering pertinent information into the database," relative to an important terrorism case from several years ago.

So sad this this President cannot even say ”Islamic terrorism.” Now he is accused by a brave American of actually covering up Islamic terrorism links, evidence, and data. And it is not like Islamic terrorism is not present in our country today, considering just the following small examples of such:

1. Christmas Bomber case in 2009.
2. 2013 Boston Marathon bombing.
3. Military installations attack in Tennessee in 2015.
4. Detroit “honor” killer Rahinm Alfatlawio in 2011.
5. Amine El Khalifi who plotted to blow up the U.S.Capitol in 2012.
6. Oklahoma beheading suus[ect Alton Nolen in 2014.
7. Recent San Bernardino shooting.

Maybe if the DHS had been allowed to their the jobs they are paid to do and not inhibited by the Obama administration, these plots and actions might have been foiled earlier and American lives saved. Just saying.

So, today’s insanity includes the Obama administration intentionally making it difficult to capture terrorists, Hillary Clinton doing her best stereotypical black woman voice imitation, EPA coverups, John Kerry being...John Kerry, and Americans increasingly afraid of their own government. More insanity tomorrow.

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

The Obama Era, Part 6 - Memories From The Worst Presidency Ever?

Late last year I thought it might be a good time to review everything that I remember about the Obama administration. He has been in office for seven years, seven long years that in my opinion have been horrific in so many ways. This was someone who entered office with approval ratings that were above 70% and who represented the so-called“hope and change” that many Americans were seeking.

This theme unexpectedly took four days to cover, that is how many failures, lies, threats, and narcissism of this President. The first post can be accessed at:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2015/12/the-obama-era-part-1-memories-from.html

Seven years later hope has become very scarce and change has almost always been for the worst. Now, before someone says that I am just a sour grapes Republican, conservative, or neo-con, understand that I have never voted for a Republican for President in my life (I started voting in the 1970s). Up until 2010, I had never voted for Republican for national office in my life. I fully support gay rights and respect a woman’s legal right to an abortion. Thus, none of what you are about to read over the next few days comes from a Republican sour grapes perspective.

But unless you have had completely had your head in the sand or elsewhere, this has been the worst Presidency that I have experienced in my lifetime. From horrid legislation (e.g. Obama Care) to a failed foreign policy (e.g. Syria) to daily lawlessness on the part of this administration (e.g. use of unsecured email accounts by high ranking administration members), the ineptness and ineffectiveness of this administration is mind boggling.

So what else will I remember from this Presidency in addition to the horror stories and disasters we already talked about, starting with the link listed above:

- I will remember this President continually telling me that Islam is totally good even though 450 out of 452 suicide bomber incidents worldwide last year were executed by Muslim suicide bombers.

- I will remember this President continually telling me that Islam is totally good even though Islamic radicals were responsible for the USS Cole bombing, the U.S. embassy bombings in Africa, the first World Trade Center attack, the second World Trade Center attack, the nightclub attacks in Bali, the recent attack in Paris, the mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, the armed services recruitment center attacks in Tennessee, the Fort Hood terror attack, the enslavement of women and children across the Middle East, the kidnapping and enslavement of children in Nigeria, the killing of homosexuals across the Middle East for simply being gay, etc.

- I will remember this President attending an Islamic mosque in Baltimore but attending any Christian churches or Jewish synagogues.

- I will remember how this President continues to insist that Muslims have been woven into the fabric of this country from the beginning but never provides any examples of great/epic Muslim Americans, probably because there are not any.

- I will remember this President issuing a Tweet on the White House Twitter account that had a picture of him throwing a football on Super Bowl Sunday as if he has any football ability.

- I will remember an Israeli public opinion poll that showed how very little respect the Israeli citizens have for this Presidency vs. previous Presidencies.

- I will remember how this Presidency illegally and secretly purged DHS ISIS files to hide the truth of how dangerous the ISIS movement is to Americans’ safety.

- I will remember how despite the reality that this Presidency will double the national debt in just eight years, by incurring a whopping $10 TRILLION in debt, and how the Federal government under this President continues to lose at least $600 billion a year from fraud and incompetence, this President still wants to raise taxes in 2017 and NOT cut spending.

- I will remember how this President became the first President ever to be sued in order to find out how much the American taxpayer actually has paid for his lavish and frequent vacations.

- I will remember how this Presidency was so lame in managing and enforcing our immigration laws that 500,000 foreign visitors overstayed their visa requirements in 2015.

- I will remember how this President illegally and unilaterally exempted the White House Office of Administration from Freedom Of Information Act requests.

I will remember a lot about this Presidency, almost all of it very forgettable, regrettable and often disgusting. And unfortunately, I will still have more bad memories to review tomorrow.

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