May, 2018, Part 4, Political Class Insanity: A D-List Celebrity Breaks Campaign Laws, An Idiotic Foreign Leader Blames Jews for the Holocaust, and Another Politician gets #METOOed

It is 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.

Let's get started:

1) Rosie O’Donnell is a D-List celebrity that has had a running public battle with Donald Trump for a long time. Given that Trump is Republican President, it is no surprise that O’Donnell is a heavy election contributor to Democrats, maybe a little too heavy:

• According to a recent article by the Fix This Nation website, she has been caught making illegal campaign contributions to Democratic politicians.
• New York Post reporting stated that she made at least five illegal campaign donations to Democrats.
• These donations exceeded the maximum $2,700 contribution that the Federal Election Commission has established that an individual can give for each candidate in each election.
• Of course, she claimed ignorance as her defence: “Nothing nefarious. I was not choosing to over donate. If 2700 is the cut off, they should refund the money. I don’t look to see who I can donate most to. I just donate assuming they do not accept what is over the limit.”
• Nice try but since she donated using different addresses and variations off of her own name, this claim of ignorance really holds no water.
• She then jumped to another reason for breaking the law, using breaking donation laws as a form of self medication: “My anxiety is quelled by donating to those opposing trump [and] his agenda — especially at night — when most of these were placed.”

As with politicians and famous people, laws are often merely suggestions for them while punishable, finable, and jailable offences for the rest of us if we broke election laws.

2) We often talk about how stupid and ignorant American politicians are. But borders to not stop political stupidity and ignorance from occurring all over the world:

• According to another Fix This Nation report, the head of the Palestinian Authority recently claimed that bad Jewish banking practices caused the Holocaust.
• Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas recently said that Jews brought the Holocaust on themselves with their “social behavior, charging interest, and financial matters.”
• He went on to make sure everyone knew that he was not interested in a peaceful settlement of tensions with Israel.

Nice guy, Holocaust denier and actually blaming the victims for getting six million of their kind killed and shutting the door to any kind of peace deal, ensuring that his people and constituents will continue to suffer for years to come while he continues to live the good life. Typical politician.

3) It seems that almost daily now, American political figures are seeing their careers go down the drain or up in smoke because they suffer some form of being a sexual predator, a fate most deserve. Earlier this month one of our political class insanity posts covered just the recent and numerous flameouts for just the state of California, from a sitting U.S. Congressman to state government politicians.

But this sexual affliction is not restricted to California or some obscure local or state politician:

• According to a recent Independent Journal Review article by William Steakin, the state of New York Attorney General was recently forced to resign.
• New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman resigned when news reports surfaced that reported multiple women accused him of assault.
• The reports started at The New Yorker magazine, which detailed abuse allegations from four women, two of which went on the record with their identities to make their accusations.
• These two women accuse Schneiderman of choking and hitting them so badly that they had to seek medical attention.
• The two unnamed women said he slapped them.
• The ironic thing if these accusations from four different women are true is that Schneiderman fancied himself as a crusader against this type of abusive behavior, vocally supporting the #METOO movement and going after one of the alleged premier sexual predators of our time, Harvey Weinstein.
• Schneiderman denied the accusations: “In the last several hours, serious allegations, which I strongly contest, have been made against me. While these allegations are unrelated to my professional conduct or the operations of the office, they will effectively prevent me from leading the office's work at this critical time. I therefore resign my office, effective at the close of business on May 8, 2018.”

As always, he is innocent until proven guilty. And as always, when many women make the same accusations about similar abuse and the alleged perp immediately resigns or decides not to seek reelection, the outcome is likely already been decided.

That will do it for today: another accused politician faces abuse accusers (this is really getting tiresome even if it is necessary to weed those that are actually this scummy), a foreign politician in denial or just plain stupid when it comes to the causes of the Holocaust, and another famous celebrity thinks the laws of the land do not apply to her. More insanity to follow.

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

December,2017, Part 3, Political Class Insanity: Bribing Hollywood With Taxpayer Dollars, TSA Still Screwing Up and MOre

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) Most people know that Washington has been racked with sexual harassment and sexual predator accounts and stories over the past month or so. Congressman John Conyers and Senator Al Franken have already been forced to resign because of their disgusting behavior towards women. In the midst of this uproar, it has come to light that Congress has been managing a slush fund to secretly payoff people who have filed various types of lawsuits against Congressional members and staffs including sexual harassment suits. The whole situation has been despicable.

Now, according to a recent Newsweek article, we find out this little piece of insanity about another Congressman:

• Congressman Bob Brady oversees the settlement process and payments done by Congress to cover sexual discrimination complaints and lawsuits.
• His position on the House committee on administration gives him power over settlement payments with the taxpayer funded slush fund discussed above.
• It turns out that the Congressman is now under investigation by the FBI for making false statements, conspiracy, and campaign fraud.
• Court papers state that Brady paid a former judge $90,000 to drop out of a 2012 primary race.
• That person has already pleaded guilty to falsifying campaign finance records to hide the $90,000 payment.
• Ironically, Brady also sits on a Congressional committee that has responsibility over how campaign contribution money is raised, reported, and used for House of Representatives races.
• According to the FBI, Brady and his associates, “were involved in the commission of several crimes, including conspiracy, false statements, producing false records, false campaign contribution reports, and violating limits on campaign contributions and expenditures. Brady’s email account is likely to contain evidence of these crimes.”
• Some of those Brady associates were indicted last month.

As always, these are allegations that do not mean any laws were broken by Brady. But if true, we have another insane example of how corrupt, greedy, and amoral the politicians in America are today.

2) Let’s get into a recent report on one of favorite and most inept Federal government organizations, the Transportation Security Agency, TSA. We have often pondered which Federal government entity is the most corrupt, useless, and inept, with the Social Security Administration, The Defense Department, and the TSA usually vying for that dubious honor.

The following story of incompetence gives the TSA a boost towards that title:

• An undercover operation by the Department of Homeland Security, the parent agency of the TSA, showed that TSA “screeners, their equipment, or their procedures failed more than half the time.”
• In fact, when ABC News asked their news source if the failure rate was 80% or so, the answer that ABC received was that their estimate was “in the ballpark.”
• During a recent hearing before the House committee on Homeland security, Congressman Mike Rogers told TSA Administrator David Pekoske that, “This agency that you run is broken badly, and it needs your attention.”
• The test apparently found trouble with just about all aspects of the TSA procedures including problems with screeners, screening equipment, and “associated procedures.”

So almost two decades after it was formed, the TSA still fails far more times than it is successful. After spending hundreds of billions of dollars, the TSA still fails far more times than it is successful. And after groping millions of Americans’ bodies, the TSA still fails far more times than it is successful. At least for today, I think you would agree that the TSA is the most inept Federal government entity.

3) Most state governments, especially those that have been dominated by Democrats over time, are not in the greatest economic or financial condition. They have underfunded pension and retirement plans for government employees, they are in deep debt, and have shrinking tax bases. The state of New York is one of those states. Although not in quite in the same dire situation of other blue states like Illinois, New Jersey, and California, I am sure that their physical infrastructure, schools, and debt situations could use every last dollar that is possible.

But according to the New York Post, in a November 9, 2017, the current governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, is diverting a lot of those much needed state taxpayer funds to his liberal friends out in Hollywood, trying to entice them to use his state to film their movies there:

• In a recent year, Cuomo arranged for a whopping $420 million of New York taxpayer money to be spent to entice Hollywood to film in the the state of New York.
• That brings the five year total to $1.2 billion.
• This makes the state of New York, and its taxpayers, the second most generous state to Hollywood over the past five years with only Louisiana paying out more than $1.2 billion.

$1.2 billion is a lot of taxpayer money, and to be honest with you, I would bet that there is no financial way in the world that this was a good investment from a financial break even perspective for the taxpayers in New York. Consider some logical numbers:

• $1.2 billion over five years means that Cuomo is giving Hollywood, on average, about $240 million a year of taxpayer wealth.
• This comes out to about $4.6 million a week on average.
• Or breaking it down further, it comes out to about $650,000 every day of the week for 52 weeks.

I would assert that there is no way that the taxpayers in New York are getting back $650,000 a day, $4.6 million a week every day and every week for an entire year in sales taxes, fuel taxes, and income taxes from Hollywood shooting movies in the state. It makes no financial sense. And they would need $650,000 a day just to break even, never mind generating additional funds.

So why does he do it? Very simple, he gives Hollywood state taxpayer wealth and Hollywood gives him back substantial monetary contributions to his election campaigns:

• Recently, Universal pictures Chairman jeff Shell hosted a fundraising event for Cuomo at his California home. 
• Invitees to the affair included Disney CEO Robert Eiger and CBS chief executive Les Moonves.
• Hollywood based folks have previously given his election efforts $860,000 and California studios have chipped in another $400,000.
• Previously, alleged sexual predator Harvey Weinstein had given Cuomo $111,000 in political donations that Cuomo only hesitantly returned after it was disclosed that Weinstein might be a really bad character.

Pretty sweet deal: use taxpayer money to fund your election campaign by first laundering it through Hollywood studios and executives 3,000 miles away. If this was a drug deal, it would be a felony, Since it is a politician’s operation, it is okay.

This is why we put Step 7 in our book, “Love My Country, Loathe My Government.” That step would make it illegal for anyone to contribute to a politician’s election campaign unless they lived in that politician’s domain of responsibility. 

In this case, no one in Hollywood could give Cuomo’s election campaign any money unless they lived and voted in New York. If this tenet was in place, I highly doubt that Cuomo would be generously giving out state taxpayer to people so far away from his home state since they would not be able to reply in kind.

Another day, another bunch of scummy political antics, laundering taxpayer money through Hollywood, more TSA’s failures, and another alleged corrupt and low life politician. More insanity to follow.

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

The Disgusting and Despicable Sexual Perversion Behavior Of Politicians And Others Of Influence, Part 4

Readers of this blog know that we have never had a high opinion of most people in the American political class. We currently have a Congressman serving in Congress who once thought that the entire island of Guam could tip over. We have a Congresswoman who publicly said her home district of Houston sat 50 feet under sea level (it does not) and who thought the Constitution was 400 years old. We once had a Speaker of the House who once proclaimed that the Obama Care legislation had to be passed BEFORE we found out what was in it. We once had a President who appears to have been a sexual predator. We currently have a President who has made many derogatory comments about women.

But it seems that in the past few weeks the bad news about our leaders in both the political class and the press that covers it has exploded from a sexual harassment, sexual predator, and general sleaziness perspective. These are the people that shape our laws, report our news and impact our lives everyday but have the integrity and morals of a dead rock. 

Unfortunately, we are going to review the current, sorry state of these people over the next few days, keeping the details short and not too graphic but discussing enough to likely repulse you and realize how important it is to get these people out of office, out of our lives, and implement term limits to reduce the arrogance and ignorance that pervades our political life today.

When reviewing the following instances of alleged transgressions, keep in mind that we still do live in America where you are innocent until proven guilty. Claims of sexual misconduct are not realities of sexual misconduct. However, the overall trend is not good when it comes to the integrity and morals of those in power in the government and in the press.

1) This is our fourth post on this subject and it is difficult keeping up. It seems everyday, some politician or journalist is being fingered for being a serial sexual harasser or predator. This brings into question what type of people are we allowing to write our laws and cover the news.

But this past week one of the biggest names in journalism also got caught being an alleged sexual predator. According to a story by Emily Zanotti, writing for the Daily Wire website on November 29, 2017:

• Matt Lauer, well known and well paid host of the Today show on NBC, has been identified as another sexual predator.
• We are pretty sure that the stories about his perversions and harassment are true since NBC fired him quickly and his follow up statement confirms that at least some of the harassment stories are true.
• NBC claimed that he was fired as a result of a single episode of sexual harassment from the network’s coverage of the 2016 Summer Olympics games in Rio.
• But a new article from Variety magazine paints a far more different and involved history of such dark behavior.
• According to the Daily Wire article: “According to the magazine [Variety], Lauer is a sophisticated sexual predator who cowed and embarrassed his female employees with sexually explicit gifts, and even had a button installed under his office desk so that he could lock unsuspecting women inside.”
• Two women have claimed that they actually became locked with him in his office and subjected to sexual harassment.
• According to one woman who has come forward, Lauer gave a sex toy to a coworker as a present along with a note about how he wanted to use it on her.
• Another woman told Variety that Lauer often exposed himself and once “summoned a female employee to his office, and then dropped his pants, showing her his penis. After the employee declined to do anything, visibly shaken, he reprimanded her for not engaging in a sexual act.”
• Variety also described a “game” Lauer played, more less named “"f*ck, marry, kill," forcing his co-workers to listen as he determined which of his female co-workers he'd put in each category.
• Variety claimed that they interviewed dozens of NBC women and that Lauer’s perversions were an open secret at the network….even though NBC management claimed they never knew anything until this past week, with one NBC source saying, "Management sucks there. They protected the s— out of Matt Lauer.”

As we have said many times this week, not only is this type of behavior unacceptable and disgusting, but it calls into question the integrity and accuracy of anything that people like Lauer or NBC broadcast as news. What type of amoral people do this type of stuff and allow it to go on without stepping in to stop it? How can we trust them on the news when they could not be trusted to be honest and in integrity when it came to this type of despicable behavior?

It also calls into question the intelligence of people like Lauer. He was earning about $20 million a year, an annual salary that he has now flushed down the toilet. How stupid does one have to be to screw up this badly and if he was this unthinking in this matter, what level of intelligence was he bringing to his broadcasting of the news?

2) But it is not just politicians and journalists and TV newscasters like Lauer. Many Hollywood liberals, those that crucified Trump of his sexual exploits, are turning out to be just as bad or worse than the person they accused of degrading women:

• Harvey Weinstein, famous movie company owner and producer, is probably the most infamous and the most prolific when it comes to alleged sexual harassment and perversion, with a slew of actresses and would be actresses accusing him of a bunch of sick sexual actions up to and including rape.
• Chief Creative Officer for Disney and Pixar, John Lasseter, resigned after a series of so-called “missteps” (his words) came to light of sexual predator behavior on his part.
• Kevin Spacey lost his TV show when it came to light that he may have sexually molested a young boy years ago.
• And most recently, actor Jeffrey Tambor, who played the lead role in the TV show “Transparent, said he will not return for the show’s fifth season after sexual misconduct accusations found him.

You have to love the hypocrisy here. Many of these Hollywood big shots and famous people lectured regular citizens on who to vote for, most often in a very condescending tone, criticized Trump for being so anti-women. But it turns out that they themselves are just as big if not bigger sexual predators themselves besides being world class hypocrites. Talk about lack of integrity, lack of morals.

3) Let’s get back to the arena of journalism and news broadcasting since it appears that it was not just TV news people, Charlie Rose and Matt Lauer, that have been caught being scum bags, but a New York Times print journalist also just lost his job, at least temporarily, for such misbehavior:

• Amber Athey, writing for the Daily Caller website on November 11, 2017, reported that a New York Times White House correspondent was recently suspended after sexual misconduct allegations concerning him came to light.
• Vox reported that Glenn Thrush has been suspended because several young women have come forward and accused him of unwanted sexual advances.
• Eileen Murphy, senior vice president of communications of the Times issued a statement: “The behavior attributed to Glenn in this Vox story is very concerning and not in keeping with the standards and values of The New York Times. We intend to fully investigate and while we do, Glenn will be suspended. We support his decision to enter a substance abuse program. In the meantime, we will not be commenting further.”
• According to the article from Ms. Athey: “The author of the [Vox] piece, Laura McGann, worked with Thrush at Politico. She wrote that she once shared drinks with Thrush and several other colleagues until she and Thrush were left along together. Thrush allegedly blocked her from leaving the booth she was sitting in, put his hand on her thigh, and kissed her. She resisted his advances, and McGann believes she was treated differently in the workplace after Thrush told his male friends an altered version of what happened in the booth.”
• Another young female journalist accused Thrush of trying to kiss her against her wishes, with her texting a friend that, “I’m drunk. I’m nervous about this Glenn situation.”
• To Thrush’s credit, he is the first perp that is blaming an addition for his misbehavior, it is not me that is bad, the alcohol is forcing me to be a sexual predator: “The June incident [described above] was a life-changing event [for me]. The woman involved was upset by my actions and for that I am deeply sorry,” Thrush said in a statement. Over the past several years, I have responded to a succession of personal and health crises by drinking heavily. During that period, I have done things that I am ashamed of, actions that have brought great hurt to my family and friends. I have not taken a drink since June 15, 2017, have resumed counseling and will soon begin out-patient treatment for alcoholism. I am working hard to repair the damage I have done.” 

Again, lack of morals and a lot of hypocrisy, makes it difficult to believe anything he reports or says as a journalist in the future. Especially since rather than manning up and taking responsibility, he is trying to blame an outside force, alcohol, for his deviant behavior. Pathetic.

More to come. Unfortunately.

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

November, 2017, Part 2, Political Class Insanity: A Tome Deaf Congresswoman, Foreign Troops Wandering Our Cities, and Constitutional Ignorance

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.

Note: we realize that November, 2017 has not started yet but trust me, we have so much political class insanity to get to this month that we are going to start a few days early in order to get it all in:

1) As most of the world knows, Harvey Weinstein, a major Hollywood film producer, has been found out to be a potential sexual predator on young actresses. His alleged perverted behavior was sexist to the ultimate degree. In these days of supposed enlightenment, one would not have expected the following inane behavior from an African American Congresswoman, according to a recent article on the Independent Journal Review website by Virginia Kruta:

• Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnston, a Texas Congresswoman, recently condemned the alleged behavior of Harvey Weinstein.
• But she could not keep from making a fool of herself when she continued on to suggest that women bear a certain “responsibility” when it comes to sexual harassment.
• Adding on to her stupidity, she said that some women’s clothing can be “inviting.”
• In her own words: “I grew up in a time when it was as much the woman’s responsibility as it was a man’s – how you were dressed, what your behavior was. I’m from the old school that you can have behaviors that appear inviting. It can be interpreted as such. That’s the responsibility, I think, of the female.”

How insensitive are these comments from a woman and a member of Congress? Pathetic. But even worse, can you imagine the uproar that would have happened if a white Congressman had said the same thing? There would have been a deluge of condemnation. But since a liberal said it, no big deal from other liberals.

That is the main reason for why our country is so divided, politicians are only upset when their political opponents say something insensitive and stupid.

The Congresswoman offered a half ass apology after she got roasted on social media: “Sexual assault and harassment has no place in our society. This is something I believe deeply. And at each turn of my professional life, I have made it my mission to fight for women’s rights. I do not blame victims of sexual assault for the actions of their assailants.

I do acknowledge that my comments regarding behavior and attire come from an old school perspective that has shaped how some of us understand the issue, but that does not detract from the fact that criminals need to be held accountable for their actions.”

As always with politicians, too little too late.

2) John Sopko has been the Inspector General for Afghanistan for years. We have reported on his fine work many times in past posts. He often was a lone voice in the woods in pointing out the massive corruption, ineptness, and wasting of billions of taxpayer dollars during the entire Afghanistan occupation. 

Unfortunately, he recently brought more bad news to Americans:

• Apparently 152 foreign soldiers from Afghanistan, training in the U.S., have walked away from their bases and have disappeared into the country.They were brought here outside of normal immigration processes to train next to American soldiers and were to bring that training back to their home country.
• So now we have trained military personnel wandering around the countryside and the Federal government has no idea where they are.
• These wandering foreign troops started leaving American military bases in 2005, the majority of them walking off of the Lackland Air Force base in San Antonio, Texas and the majority of them disappearing between 2015 and 2016.
• According to the report: “It is clear that Afghan trainees go AWOL while in the United States at a far higher rate than do trainees from any other country, and we believe that the State Department (as well as other government agencies) should use all the tools at their disposal to reduce these occurrences and ensure that Afghan trainees return to Afghanistan and make use of the substantial U.S. taxpayer investment in training.”

While there is no evidence that these walkaways have or will be involved in terrorism within our borders, it is quite distressing that trained foreign military troops are wandering around our towns and cities. And it is not so far fetched to think that their families back home in Afghanistan might be held hostage in exchange for committing acts of terrorism here. Insane incompetence of both the Obama administration and the Pentagon.

3) Many times people in Washington say something that is just so stupid or so devious that you cannot believe your ears. One such case if either extreme stupidity or massive deception recently arose, according to a report from Melissa Quinn, writing for the Washington Examiner on October 26, 2017:

• Tom Perez is the head of the Democratic National Committee, making him a very powerful person in our national politics.
• Thus, you would expect him to be very well versed in our laws including the Constitution.
• He was recently a speaker at the Indiana University Law School’s Annual Birch Bayh Lecture series where he made the following totally inane comment: "The Electoral College is not a creation of the Constitution. It doesn't have to be there. There's a national popular vote compact in which a number of states have passed a bill that says we will allocate our vote, our electoral votes, to the person who wins the national popular vote once other states totaling 270 electoral votes do the same."
• Obviously, Mr. Perez did not read the Constitution or somehow does not understand it since Article II of the Constitution states: "Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector.”

Is he that ignorant of the Constitution, in which case why is he in such an important position? Or is he being that deceptive and is still ticked off that Hillary won the most popular votes for President in 2016 but lost the Presidency because of Article II. Ignorant or deceptive, not untypical but still undesirable qualities to have in our political arena.

Enough insanity for today: a leading political figure who is so ignorant or dismissive of the Constitution, foreign troops walking around the country’s streets and cities, and a tone deaf Congresswoman when it comes to sexual harassment. More insanity to follow.

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

November, 2017, Part 1, Political Class Insanity: The IRS Apologizes, Politicians' Perversion, and Economic Ignorance Still Exists

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.

Note: we realize that November, 2017 has not started yet but trust me, we have so much political class insanity to get to this month that we are going to start a few days early in order to get it all in:

1) Several years ago it became clear that Obama had weaponized the IRS. This led the IRS to start a scorched earth campaign to make sure that non-liberal and non-Democratic Party groups and organizations would be denied a non-profit status from the IRS. This crippled hundreds of organizations from exercising their First Amendment rights of free speech and quite possibly helped Obama get elected to a second term.

Obama, of course, denied any of this was happening, claiming that rogue agents in one IRS office had done some bad deeds. He made this announcement before any investigation had been done, hoping to kill the scandal in its early stages. Eventually Congressional hearings were held but nothing was done since the 2012 election had come and gone and Obama had been reelected, quite possibly because of his weaponizing of the iRS to harass and impede Conservatives and Republicans.

Of course, Democrats claimed nothing nefarious had happened. But according to a recent article on the Daily Caller website by Jack Crowe on October 26, 2017, it looks like quite a lot of First Amendment trashing did actually occur:

• The Federal government recently settled two class action lawsuits that had been filed by Tea Party organizations that alleged that Obama’s Justice Department discriminated against them solely because of their contrary political views.
• Over 400 organizations reached an undisclosed monetary settlement.
• They got this settlement because, as Attorney Jeff Session said that these organizations had their tax exempt status rulings delayed or denied “based solely on their viewpoint or ideology” and that “The [Internal Revenue Service]’s use of these criteria [holding a contrary political view] as a basis for heightened scrutiny was wrong and should never have occurred...It is improper for the IRS to single out groups for different treatment based on their names or ideological positions.”
• In court filings the IRS apologized: “The IRS admits that its treatment of Plaintiffs during the tax-exempt determination process, including screening their applications based on their names or policy positions, subjecting those applications to heightened scrutiny and inordinate delays, and demanding some Plaintiffs’ information that TITA determined was unnecessary to the agency’s determination of their tax-exempt status, was wrong. For such treatment, the IRS expresses its sincere apology.”

So, not only did Obama help himself in his 2012 election campaign by wiping out the voices of at least 400 organizations that did not support his reelection, misusing and abusing Federal government resources in the process, his antics also cost the American taxpayer and undisclosed amount of money used to pay this settlement. And nobody went to jail for this obviously illegal and unethical use of government power to suppress First Amendment rights of Americans. Insanity.

2) First, we had a Democratic President in John Kennedy who was an adulterer before and during the time he was President. Then along came Democrat Bill Clinton who was a likely sexual predator before, during, and after his time as President. This was followed by Democratic Congressman Anthony Weiner who could not stop himself from sexting with a variety of women even though he was married and his wife was pregnant, eventually being found guilty of sexting to a minor. And most recently, we have movie mogul Harvey E Weinstein, a heavy, heavy supporter of Democrats across the country including Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama now under fire for allegedly sexually harassing many, many young hollywood actresses over the years.

But deviant sexual behavior is not limited to national well known Democratic politicians and supporters. On October 11, 2017, police raided the home of Phillip Ahr who was a member of the Radnor, Pennsylvania Township Board of Commissioners. His alleged crime was child pornorgraphy. The police found hundreds of images and videos of child pornography. According to the news reports of the arrest, the material collected was disgusting in its abuse of kids as young as three to five years old.

It is so sadly insane that so many in the current American political class are useless, inane, inept, and distressingly and morally corrupt, from the White House to Hollywood to a small town in Pennsylvania.

3) We have often discussed the economic idiocy of the political class, especially as it applies to the minimum wage issue in the country. Many politicians have been obsessed with the nonsense concept of a “living wage” and in several areas across the country have raised the minimum wage level to $15 an hour in a futile attempt to get low end jobholders a “livable wage.”

However, ignoring economic sensibilities, the result of jacking up the minimum wage almost always results in businesses going out of business and many people losing their job, giving them a wage level per hour of $0.00. No matter how many real life examples that occur which reinforce the need for the market to set prices/wages, politicians still insist that raising the minimum wage is always a good thing and always results in much more hardship than it saves.

The Independent Journal Review recently ran an article by Will Ricciardella that described an example of a pizzeria that went out of business because it tried to force a $15 minimum wage into a market that would not support it, much like what happens when politicians mandate an unrealistic minimum wage:

• Dudley Dough was a Boston pizza parlor that was dedicated to providing its employees a “fair wage” environment to work in, i.e. it raised its minimum wages to “above marketplace” wages without a politician mandate.
• However, Dudley Dough had to go out of business because its high wages did not enable it to stay profitable, according to reporting by the Boston Globe.
• Bing Broderick, executive director for the nonprofit Haley House, which oversaw the parlor’s operations stated: “The challenge for Dudley Dough was to support itself. While popular, the shop is not breaking even financially.” 
• This was a marketplace issue since three other restaurants opened for business at the same time that Dudley Dough opened and they are still operating.
• So instead of getting marketplace determined wages, the Dudley Dough employees will be getting no wages.
• Making the failure of Dudley Dough even more dramatic is that it could not stay profitable even though Robert Kraft, the owner of the New England Patriots, gave the pizza parlor a $100,000 donation, a head start every other successful restaurant did not get yet they are still in business.

But I would bet that politicians will learn nothing from this basic economic lesson: the marketplace always wins. When politicians or others try to force the marketplace to bend to their prejudices, it never works out for the people that those politicians are supposed to be helping, the workers who lose their jobs because of politicians’ economic ignorance.

More insanity to follow. It is going to be a wild ride of insanity this month, guaranteed.

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