Showing posts with label gallup. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gallup. Show all posts

Friday, April 4, 2025

April, 2025, Part 1 - Political Class Insanity: More Condescending Politicians, A Major Failed Transportation Project, and American Journalism Continues to Self-Destruct

 Time to check in on the American political class and see what nonsense, idiocy, and other shenanigans they are up to:


1)According to Gallup opinion polling, the trust in the news media in this country has been in a steep decline for decades. From a high of 72% trust in the  news media in 1976, the latest poll shows that only 31% of those polled had any trust in the news media while 69% had little or no trust.


Given the horrific track record of truth and integrity over the past several years, these polling figures shout not surprise anyone:


  • The reporting on Russian collusion about Trump’s first campaign was false.

  • The reporting on the Steele Dossier was false.

  • The reporting on the Hunter Biden laptop computer was false.

  • The reporting that the Covid virus arose in a wet market in China was false.

  • The reporting that the Covid vaccine would prevent someone from getting the virus was false.

  • The reporting that actor Jussie Smollet was attacked two Trump supporters was false.


We  could go on but you get the idea. And now, after claiming for years, that joe Biden was fully cognitive and alert, we find out that maybe he was actually in serious  cognitive decline for years and, according to two actual members of the disgraced news media industry, the White House and the mainstream media covered it up:


  • According to a new book about to come out, Biden’s handlers were actually planning for his departure from  the Presidency, either via death or illness in early 2023, a fact that the news media was unable or unwilling to report on.

  • This insight comes from authors Amie Parnes (NBC News connection) and Jonathan Allen (The Hill connection)  and details the  secret contingency plans that were undertaken long before it became evident at the mid-2024 debate that Biden had lost it cognitively.

  • They report that Biden’s  appearance had become so weak  looking that a makeup artist was regularly used to conceal his aging at public appearances.

  • None  of this was ever reported by the  mainstream press, wanting to believe what tripe his press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, was feeding the press despite Biden’s constant confusion and numerous physical trips and falls: "If you watch him, you’ll see that he has a grueling schedule that he keeps up with — that sometimes some of us are not able to keep up with."


Thus, the news  media reporting or ignoring the failing mental capacity of Biden was either intentional or a result of incompetence and just another reason why the trust levels of the news media continue in freefall. Unfortunately, by not doing their job until after the fact, the country had to endure more of Biden’s failed economic, immigration, and foreign policy failures.


2)No one wastes money better and  misses more schedules than  the American political class including the politicians and government bureaucrats in California:


  • California voters first approved a high speed railroad proposal back in 2008.

  • The rail line would run from Los Angeles to San Francisco and would be operational by 2020, five years ago.

  • Not only did the schedule slip but the estimated cost of the line skyrocketed over time also.

  • The plan evolved so that the first link in the line would run from Merced to Bakersfield, a 171 mile run out of the 474 mile final plan.

  • That sub-segment is estimated to be finished between 2030 and 2033, 10 to 13 years later than when they claimed the whole line would be done back  in 2008.

  • It is  now estimated that the entire project will end up costing $128 billion, about $100 million more than the original estimate.

  • Thus, the estimated cost is now about four times higher than originally estimated.

  • And that does not include the probable cost overruns on top of the current overruns that are likely to happen by the time the whole project is done.

  • This whole disaster recently got current news coverage because those in charge of this over-budget, behind schedule project are now asking for another $7 billion to keep the project going.

  • If the project does not get the additional $7 billion by next June the project  schedule will  slip even more.


At one point does someone stand up and say enough  is enough, turn off the budget busting money and funding faucet and let the project die a peaceful death.


3)But it is not just wasteful spending and bad project management skills that are the characteristics of American politicians, sometimes it is their stupidity and disconnect from reality that stand out:


  • Democrats in the Colorado state government are pushing forward legislation that would require taxpayers in the state to pay for all  abortions that occur in the state regardless of their personal and  religious views on the abortion process.

  • Colorado House Speaker Julie McCluskie tried to justify this piece of pending legislation: “That savings comes from the averted births that will not occur because abortions happened instead. A birth is more expensive than an abortion, so the savings comes in medicaid births that will not occur. This bill will actually decrease costs for our healthcare policy and financing department, our medicaid expenditures, in both this year and outyears, as the savings from averted births outweigh the cost of covering reproductive healthcare for all Coloradoans.”
  • So in her mind, the government saves money by paying for abortions as she makes a very convoluted and inane justification for abortion funding.

  • Also, since this effort only affects abortions committed under Medicaid, how much money could  possibly be saved against the state government’s annual budget of about $36,000,000,000? 


Not an  efficient way or major way to reduce government spending while forcing taxpayers to fund a process that they may disagree with.


4)And yet, despite being failures in  just about any effort they undertake, many American politicians attack the intelligence of the very people they are supposed to represent, saying stuff that obviously has no factual basis to support what they claim to be true. This was recently demonstrated by Senator Chris Coons when he claimed that: “Look, your average Trump voter laughs at us and says ‘he’s owning the libs,’ and your average Middle American says ‘why are you wasting your time on Greenland? I can’t even find it on a map!'”


I sincerely doubt that his generalization of Greenland geography is based on any study, poll, or knowledge, just an offhanded, condescending  comment to show his disregard for the average American. No solutions, no mature discussion just blathering and accusing all Americans to be geographically ignorant.  Typical.


Enough insanity for today: more condescending politicians, a whopper of a failed,  and expensive transportation failure, and the news media continues to self-destruct in a wave of misinformation reporting and lack of integrity.


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If you agree that we need to deseat every member of Congress for their lack of success and accomplishment, then please consider going to the following petition link to help the cause:


https://www.change.org/p/deseat-congress-reset-freedom



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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:

Thursday, January 23, 2025

January, 2025, Part 7, Political Class Insanity: Chicago Takes A Step Closer To Bankruptcy, Aid To Ukraine Is Getting Stolen, and We Do Not Trust Congress or The Media

 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 efficiently operating any level of government in this country.


Even their best efforts are almost always 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.


1)We have often discussed the reality that pretty soon a major U.S. city or an entire state government will go bankrupt. The mismanagement and  minimal budget skills of the politicians running these cities and states has resulted in a serious out migration of residents and businesses to other locales that have lower tax burdens, business friendly regulations, lower crime rates, and a better quality of life.


This out migration causes the tax base to shrink which reduces the tax steam and since most opticians never cut spending or make government more efficient, they have to raise tax and cut services.  This drives more residents and businesses away and the financial death spiral is underway.


Our top state candidates to go bankrupt include New York, New Jersey, Illinois, and California with other states in trouble but in not nearly as bad financial shape as the top candidates. Our top cities to go bankrupt include New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and maybe Portland and Seattle.


The leaders in this race to bankruptcy court vary over time as financial crises arise. However, given what is going down in Chicago, we think that city has taken the lead in the race of financial insolvency:


  • Chicago has very high taxes to begin with.

  • It also has seen a large out migration of residents and businesses as a result of high taxation and rampant crime.

  • But things recently got much worse as a major Wall Street ratings agency, S&P,  downgraded the city’s credit while at the same time pointing the finger of guilt at the current mayor, Brandon Johnson, and the city council.

  • A lower credit rating means that Chicago will have to pay higher interest rates on any municipal bonds the city issues which raises the cost of serving that bond and increases the expenses of the city.

  • According to S&P, the city politicians created a budget spending plan for 2025 that created “a sizable structural budgetary imbalance” that will only make the city’s financial situation worse. 

  • The city’s credit rating was lowered to BBB which means that the city has an “adequate capacity to meet financial  commitments” but is vulnerable to “adverse economic conditions.”

  • The BBB rating is only two steps above junk bond rating.

  • According to S&P’s Scott Nees: “The downgrade reflects our view that the 2025 budget leaves intact a sizable budgetary imbalance that we expect will make balancing the budget in 2026 and outyears more challenging.”

  • The city politicians were almost not able to close a $982.4 budget deficit for 2025 but left it in danger of not being able to have a viable budget in 2026 and beyond, i.e. they did not make the necessary spending cuts that were necessary to cope with a shrinking tax base.

  • Specifically: “The city’s practical options for raising new revenue appear less certain, as does the willingness of city leadership to cut spending, creating a level of uncertainty around its financial trajectory that is more appropriately reflected in the lower rating.” 

  • The mayor, not surprisingly, criticized the downgrade, claiming that the city has “fundamental economic strength.”


But the city still has many underfunded pension and other obligations, residents and businesses continue to flee the city, crime is still rampant, and now the world knows that Wall Street is not happy with the financial outlook of the city government. Yes, it looks like the city of Chicago is now in a financial death spiral and is now our top city candidate to go bankrupt first.

2)Speaking of corruption, let’s go halfway around the world to Ukraine:

  • As most people know, the Ukranians have been fighting the invading Russian army now for almost four years.

  • Also, as most people know, Joe Biden had no plan, no strategy and even  worse, made no effort to end the conflict.

  • Insead he just kept writing checks using American taxpayer money and sending it overseas with the intent to help the Ukranians save their country from the invaders.

  • The cost of his inability to negotiate and lack of energy to do so has probably cost the American taxpayer about $200 billion so far, the amount of  money Biden sent to the Ukrainians that was supposed to be used to beat the Russians.

  • This is wasted money that could have been a great help to helping millions of Americans that are homeless, hungry, need medical care, and relief from many natural disasters.

  • But it gets worse, according to ex-Polish deputy minister Piotr Kulpa.

  • Kulpa claims that up to half of the funds that reached the Ukrainian capital were stolen by Ukrainian officials.

  • This is not out of the realm of possibility since the country has a long history of alleged corruption within the government.

  • Specifically: “But they will also find something else: that a huge portion of the funds was stolen in Ukraine. From 30% to 50%, regardless of the nature of the aid.”

  • He also said that U.S. foreign programs are a way to “write off large sums of money that finance shady systems under the Democratic Party’s control,”

  • Also, he claims that the public figure of aid that was supposedly sent to the Ukranians was nowhere near what was actually delivered and used for the purpose of beating the Russians.

  • A lot of the money was siphoned off to pay the sky high salaries and bonuses of senior Ukrainian government politicians and officials.

Given that Federal government programs like the covid relief programs,  Social Security, Medicare, and just about every other government function is rife with fraud, criminal activity and stupidity, this assertion by the Polish official should not surprise us, just another day to rip off the American taxpayer, or as Mr. Kulpa says: “It’s a spit in the face of every Ukrainian. To every European and American taxpayer. This system is criminal from start to finish.”

Follow up note: A recent report from the Pentagon Inspector General, Robert Storch, said existing Ukrainian corruption “continues to complicate Ukraine’s efforts to achieve its EU and NATO aspirations.”

3)So political class incompetence is alive and well in Chicago and D.C., which should not surprise us when we look at the most recent Gallup trustworthy survey:

  • On a regular basis, Gallup polls Americans on how they judge the honesty and ethical standards of various professions.

  • The least trusted professions recently turned out to be lobbyists, members of Congress, and TV reporters.

  • More than half  of those surveyed said these professions have low or very low ethics.

  • Only 13% of respondents had a high opinion of TV reporters who ranked higher than Congressional  members and lobbyists, which means less than 13% of those polled had a high opinion of them.

  • Only 8% said they had a high opinion of Congress and only 4% had a high opinion of lobbyists.

  • And why Congress is rated very low, the mainstream media/TV reporters are on a very bad trend since in 1972 Gallup found that the media was rated highly by 69% and today that 69% has slid to 31%.

So Americans do  not trust their members in Congress or the media TV reporters that cover them, leaving us in deep trouble from a democracy perspective: politicians stink at their jobs and we do not trust mainstream media types to tell us about their failures and corruption. Dangerous times.

Just another day of insanity: Chicago takes the lead in the bankruptcy race, another government program that wastes billions of taxpayer wealth, and no one merits a bit of our trust.

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If you agree that we need to deseat every member of Congress for their lack of success and accomplishment, then please consider going to the following petition link to help the cause:


https://www.change.org/p/deseat-congress-reset-freedom



**********************


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: