September, 2017, Part 3, Political Class Insanity: The Fiscal Insanity and Ignorance of Democrats

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.

1) I am not a fan of either political party, Republican or Democrat. Both parties have been responsible for running up a whopping national debt of almost $20 trillion without resolving a single issue facing Americans today. They are more concerned about their own greed and status than addressing any problem. Our schools still under educate, our infrastructure is still falling apart, we have been and are still embroiled in non-winnable foreign country conflicts, we have no overarching energy strategy or plan, the list of failures goes on and on.

But you have to hand it to the Democrats for being the much bigger screwups than the Republicans. Just look at their history of governing:

• Early in Obama’s Presidency, the Democrats controlled both houses of Congress and the White House but somehow managed to preside over the worst economic recovery in about 80 years, ran up the first annual Federal government trillion dollar deficit and then followed up that horrific performance with three more trillion dollar deficits, enacted Obama Care which is probably the worst piece of legislation ever passed by Washington, etc.
• At the state level traditionally Democratic states Illinois, California, and New Jersey are rapidly approaching fiscal insolvency and meltdown.
• At the local level, traditionally Democratic cities have either gone bankrupt (Detroit, Michigan, Stockton,California, and others), are heading for bankruptcy (Chicago), or are overcome with high levels of murders and violent crime (Chicago and Baltimore).

Quite the inane record of constant failure. But Kyle Becker, writing for the Independent Journal Review in early August, 2017, highlighted some election numbers that show how badly Democrats have performed recently and how Obama has probably contributed to more destruction of the Democratic party than anyone else ever despite having been elected President for two terms:

• If you look at the state governments where Democrats control both houses of the state legislature and the governor’s mansion (a political trifecta), than Democrats rule over only 7.2% of the country’s land mass.
• The Democrats now hold a record low number of trifectas (7) across all of the states.
• Republicans have 24 trifectas across the country, almost four times as many as the Democrats.
• Almost 50% of the country’s residents live in states whose government is completely under the control of Republicans.
• During the Obama Presidency, the Democrats at the state and national level lost over 1,000 governing positions in those levels of government.
• The Democrats now hold a record low number of governorships across the country.
• And things could get worse for the Democrats since in 2018 there are 10 Democratic Senators running for reelection in states that Trump carried in 2016 while the Republicans have only 2 Senators running for reelection that might be in trouble.

Again, I have no use for either party. But you have to be really inept as a political organization to have the results the Democrats have been running up over the past 8 years of the Obama administration. And ineptness is not something the country needs these days, given the many real issues facing Americans every day.

2) Let’s move onto another piece of political class insanity and I am afraid Democrats will do not do much better than what we just discussed. The Mercatus Center at George Mason University recently completed an extensive study along many dimensions (e.g. short term and long term debt, unfunded pension liabilities, etc.) to determine the fiscal condition of each state government. 

A state government in good condition has much more flexibility to serve its citizens since they have a good balance sheet and cash flow. States in bad fiscal shape either have to cut services and budgets or raise taxes which usually ends up in a death spiral of shrinking revenue and rising expenses.

According to their study and analysts Eileen Norcross and Olivia Gonzalez, the following five states are in the best fiscal condition:

1 - Florida

2 - North Dakota

3 - South Dakota

4 - Utah

5 - Wyoming

The following states are in the worst fiscal condition:

50 - New Jersey

49 - Illinois

48 - Massachusetts

47 - Kentucky

46 - Maryland

A few observations about these results:

• With the exception of Kentucky, the worst five states have been dominated by Democratic politicians for decades.
• These five states, according to Mercatus, have massive debt obligations and massive unfunded obligations: “Each state has massive debt obligations. Each of the bottom five states exhibits serious signs of fiscal distress. Their large liabilities and low cash on hand raise serious concerns about their ability to pay bills...Unfunded liabilities continue to be a problem. High deficits and debt obligations in the forms of unfunded pensions and healthcare benefits continue to drive each state into fiscal peril. Each holds tens, if not hundreds, of billions of dollars in unfunded.”
• Which is interesting since these states have some of the highest tax burdens in the whole country with New Jersey having the third highest tax burden on its citizens (according to a Forbes analysis) with 12.7% of citizens incomes being collected as state taxes, Illinois having the fifth highest tax burden (12.6%), Massachusetts having the eleventh highest tax burden (10.3%), and Maryland having the seventh highest tax burden (10.9%).
• In other words, despite taxing its citizens at much higher rates than other states, these fiscally under performing, Democratic controlled states have managed to squander away the high levels of taxes they have collected over the years and still have high levels of debt and liabilities.
• Conversely, the states in the best fiscal condition have low levels of debt, low levels of unfunded liabilities, good cash flows, growing economies, etc.
• And yet they collect far less in taxes then the five worst states with Florida having the 17th lowest tax burden on its citizens (8.9%), North Dakota having the 18th lowest tax burden (9.0%), South Dakota having the second lowest tax burden (7.1%), and Wyoming having the third lowest tax burden (7.1%).
• In fact, three of the top performing states, Florida, Wyoming, and South Dakota, do not even have a state income tax to collect and yet they still far outperform the bottom states which not only have state income taxes by usually high levels of state income taxes.
• Only Utah of the best states has a relatively high tax burden of 9.6% which places it at the 30th lowest tax burden in the country.

Thus, the correlation is pretty strong and yields the following pretty solid conclusions and summary: states dominated by Democrats in elected office tend to have the worst fiscal conditions and worst fiscal management histories even though they tax their citizens at much higher rates than states with Republican domination who have better fiscal management skills yet collect less in taxes on a percentage basis than the worst performing states. The numbers and realities do not lie.

And these conclusions do not end with the top five and bottom five. If you look at the top 18 states that are in the best fiscal health, you see that most are Republican dominated and many do not even collect a state income tax. If you look at the 18 states with a worse than average fiscal condition, you will see that most of them are Democratic dominated and most, if not all, collect a state income tax.

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Again, I have little respect and use for either party but if given a choice, it is pretty clear that Democrats will tax you more, screw up your state government fiscal conditions more, and in the process reduce your freedom by reducing the amount of wealth you get to retain and have to use as you please.

More insanity to follow this week.

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, 2015, Part 4, I Am A Global Warming Doubter and A Believer In Science: HItler Comparisons, The Greening Of Africa and More

Every month we have enough material to return to a continuing theme in this blog, namely that “I am a global warming doubter AND a believer in science.” This became of interest because of people like Al Gore who fanatically and verbosely claimed that you had to be an idiot to not believe in manmade global warming. It has been my life belief that anyone that is that loud and that obnoxious is hiding something, that rather than argue facts and reality it is better to beat down and insult anyone who disagrees.

As we have dove into the whole issue of manmade global warming, or its new rebranded title of climate change, we found that Al Gore and people like him were guilty of a number of things:

• Ignoring science and realities that did not support their opinions and positions.
• Rather than have an adult conversation about climate, these types of advocates like Gore sank to the level of insulting those who dared look at ALL science by calling them a variety of names including racists, homophobes, terrorists, flat earth believers, and other slanderous names.
• Continuing to insist that politicians step up their intrusions into our lives with higher taxes, more regulations, and more control on our freedoms and standards of living based on a shaky theory at best.

To see the past posts and the multitude of evidence that we have compiled that showed it is perfectly okay to be a global warming doubter and a believer in science, enter the phrase "global warming doubter” in the search box above or go through the monthly historical post listed on the right side of this page.

Thus, let’s see the latest facts and science that prove you can be a global warming doubter and a believer in science, regardless of what Al Gore proclaims.

1) Readers of this blog and this series on global warming are aware that when those advocating for global warming laws and restrictions on freedom cannot win an argument on facts, science, and reality they then revert to name calling and insults. Al Gore is the leader in this tactic having called global warming doubters and believers in science homophobes, racists, and and a whole slew of other insults, as if insulting us and calling us names is a smart way to convert our evidence and feelings to his point of view.

We continue to point out these kinds of attacks to prove that more and more these are the only tactics that global warming advocates can use to defend what is becoming more and more a shaky theory. Consider the following hate filled tirade that a Yale University professor, Dr. Timothy Snyder, recently went on in the New York Times:

Hitler spread ecological panic by claiming that only land would bring Germany security and by denying the science that promised alternatives to war. By polluting the atmosphere with greenhouse gases, the United States has done more than any other nation to bring about the next ecological panic, yet it is the only country where climate science is still resisted by certain political and business elites. These deniers tend to present the empirical findings of scientists as a conspiracy and question the validity of science — an intellectual stance that is uncomfortably close to Hitler’s.

Yes, if you are a global warming doubter you are equivalent to the worst tyrant whoever lived. A person who tried to exterminate an entire religion from the face of the earth by killing six million people. A tyrant is is responsible for the deaths of tens of million of people via the second world war. Yes, disagree with me and you are like Hitler. Pathetic way to win an argument and influence people.

Just this week we have pointed out a number of scientists who disagree with the notion that man made global warming and climate change are a reality. Are all those people also like Hitler? Who gets to decide what scientists are like Hitler and which are not, Dr.Snyder? You? Al Gore? Cut the hateful rhetoric and let’s all get together for an adult, mature discussion on climate without the slurs and mudslinging. Life is too short to waste time with people like you who would rather name call than problem solve.

2) Would Dr. Snyder also call researchers at Arizona State University Hitler-like for their recent scientific study that shows Africa is actually going against the forecasted trend of gloom and doom from global warming advocates and forecast models? The Arizona State University researchers found that climate changes over the past few decades has actually saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of Africans from extreme poverty, starvation, and early death,

According to recent Breitbart reporting: “The study shows that the West African Sahel – part of the semiarid strip just south of the Sahara desert, which spans the African continent from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea – has been steadily “regreening” since the severe droughts of the 1970s and 1980s which killed more than 100,000 people. Among the reasons for the “regreening” are increased rainfall, the beneficial effects of increased atmospheric CO2 on plant growth and the ingenuity of farmers (“community-led conservation efforts) in this harsh, marginal region.”

Thus, rather than famine, hunger, and other calamities predicted by global warming advocates (see Susan Rice’s hysteria in yesterday’s post), at least throughout Africa, changing climate, for whatever reason, has been a good thing for humanity. 

3) The Townhall website recently pointed out that we have gone through another hurricane season that has been extremely mild with no major storms hitting the U.S. from either the Atlantic or Pacific oceans. As a relatively recent immigrant to central Florida, having arrived in the state in 2005, I have not experienced ANY hurricanes or very serious storms in the past ten years. 

Which was NOT supposed to happen. Global warming advocates for years predicted dire consequences with Mother Nature unleashing unbelievably powerful storms and hurricanes in increasing frequency as mankind continued to spew carbon into the air and accelerate global warming. 

What I especially enjoyed in the Townhall article was the following sarcastic paragraph and the calamities that global warming was causing:

Global warming is preventing the ice caps from melting, wreaking havoc on Antarctic research stationsd by preventing easy access for resupply ships due to the accumulation of sea ice, and expanded the Arctic Ice Cap by 533,000 square miles. Global temperatures have stagnated for nearly 16 years, and we’ve seen some of the quietest tornado seasons on record. In 2013, it was the calmest tornado season in six decades. In 2015, the tornado count is 59 percent below average.

No wonder why the CIA shut down its climate research program

Reality sucks, especially when your forecast models are utter failures in their prediction of dire natural calamities as a result of manmade global warming and climate change.

4) One last discussion point for this month’s update on being a global warming doubter and a believer in science. As many people have pointed out, there is a point of view that there is a vicious but conscious cycle in place between some politicians who want more control over our lives and climate scientists who advocate for man made global warming and climate change. 

These politicians who thirst for control and power need anything that sounds scientific to prove that manmade global warming, climate change is a danger to humanity and scientists need government/taxpayer funding to continue to have a job and income. This relationship often has caused the scientific process and appraoch to be compromised as we have seen in the various email system hacks that have occurred over the years. These hacked emails have shown scientists willing to forfeit the integrity of their work in order to keep the government grant money coming to them.

Such is the case in the following alleged facts about a George Mason climate scientist who has been using taxpayer money to live a very good life:

• Jagadish Shukla is a professor at George Mason University and was a recent signee, along with 19 other professors, of a letter to the Justice Department which recommended that global warming doubters be tried under the RICO act as gangsters and racketeers.
• But he is now under investigation by Congress for abusing taxpayer money and grants he received with Congressman Lamar Smith having formally requested all relevant documents from Dr. Shukla regarding a non-profit organization called The Institute Of Global Environment and Society, an entity that was heavily and/or totally funded with taxpayer wealth.
• Smith’s Congressional committee is investigating two issues with the professor. The first question is if the institute is involved in “partisan political activity,” activity which is forbidden and illegal since the Institute, as a non-profit entity, is forbidden to do.
• The second issue is to find out exactly what happened with the whopping $63 million in taxpayer funded grants the Institute received since there is apparently very little in the way of publications and research that has been generated for that $63 million.
• Despite publishing very little, news reports contend that the professor and his wife allegedly personally pocketed over $800,000 a year in both 2013 and 2014.
• According to Steve McIntyre, well known global warming skeptic, investigator, and researcher, as far back as 2001 Shukla was drawing a salary from George Mason University and that he and his wife received almost $215,000 from the Institute.
• By 2004, he and his wife were drawing down about $400,000 from the Institute and by 2013 they were getting $547,000 just from the Institute.
• By 2014 the Shuklas’ daughter was now employed at the Institute and the Institute had donated $100,000 to support a charity in India...that Shukla himself had founded.
• Apparently under Federal law, it is illegal for state employees to be paid for doing work that they are also being paid for doing by a state government.
• Since George Mason is a state university, Shuklas is a state employee and there is the potential crime being done where he is drawing Federal money for doing the same work that he is doing as a state employee, in this case, a college professor.
• Besides breaking the law, George Mason might be entitled to the half of the $63 million that the Shuklas have taken from the American taxpayer.
• Former Virginia State University Climatologist, Pat Michaels, one who Shukla and nineteen others who signed the Justice Department letter might be affected by that RICO letter, has publicly called the Shukla set-up as “the largest science scandal in US history.”

While I do not think this is the largest scandal in history, I would bet it is the largest global warming scandal in history if true. Hopefully, Congressman Smith and his Congressional committee case find the truth and hand out appropriate criminal punishment.

But this whole scandal illustrates how incestuous the relationship is between political operatives like Gore and Obama who want so much more control over our lives and freedoms via a highly shaky global warming/climate change theory and the scientists who are willing to give them fake scientific fodder for their position in return for perpetual taxpayer funding. 

I am not saying that all scientists who support global warming theories are out of integrity. But the potential for massive fraud and deception is underway today in the whole field and scientific integrity needs to be restored so that we make the right decisions based on ALL available science, date, and realities. And those scientists who fail to live up to accept levels of scientific integrity and inquiry should be punished as necessary for either their ethical or criminal activities.

That will do it to this month’s series on global warming. It is just another month where we again prove it is perfectly logical and sane to be a global warming doubter and a believer in science.

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