October, 2016, Part 2, Political Class Insanity - Polticians With Bad Priorities, Politicans With Massive Conflicts of Interest, and a President With a Large Narcissism Problem

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) Obama has been more or less obsessed with a small handful of issues facing the country over the past year, most notably gun control and global warming. But are these the issues Americans are most concerned about, are they the issues that Obama should have been focusing on if he was truly concerned about what Americans wanted him to focus on?

The answer to that question is an unequivocal “no” if you believe a recent survey that was done by Chapman University that surveyed 1,541 American adults. The survey asked the respondents to tell them what they feared most and then rank ordered the things or potential events that Americans are most concerned about and are most afraid of. The top answers to that survey, as reported in a recent issue of Businessweek magazine, are:

1. Corruption- 78% think the two main parties are corrupt
2. Cyberterrorism
3. Personal data tracking corporate
4. Terrorist attacks
5. Personal data tracking government
6. Biowarfare
7. Identity theft
8. Economic collapse
9. Running out of money - one of three have no savings
10. Credit card fraud

As you can see, the top concerns of Americans, the things that Obama should be focused on, fall into three general categories:

• Economic situation - Identity theft, economic collapse, running out of money, and credit card fraud. 
• Safety - cyberterrorism, terrorist attacks, biowarfare 
• Dysfunctional government - Corruption, government tracking of personal data

Instead, Obama has been focused on gun control, which finished 13th on the list, not cracking the top ten of what Americans are most afraid of and global warming, which was way down the list at 21, not even cracking the top 20 of Americans’ concerns and fears. In fact, more Americans are afraid of reptiles, which I assume includes being attacked and killed by an alligator or crocodile (17th on the list) than global warming.

So rather than focusing on cleaning up the corruption in government and politics and protecting the Fourth Amendment by restricting government access to our data, he worries about gun control. Rather than working on improving what has been a historically anemic economic recovery after the last recession, he focuses on global warming. Rather than focusing on protecting us from terrorism and other physical threats, he focuses on his golf game.

Not a terribly effective President when he focuses on an issue made doubly worse because he focuses on the wrong issues relative to the people he is theoretically supposed to be taking his orders from.

2) I have never been a fan of John Kerry. He is a terrible negotiator on the international stage when it comes to being Secretary of State and he has uttered some of the most inane quotes of any politician we have come across over the past several years. And now it looks like we can add corruption to that list of faults.

According to an article by Ethan Barton on September 12, 2016 that appeared on the Daily Caller website, it appears that John Kerry’s State Department has been funneling taxpayer dollars through the Peace Corps to a non-profit foundation, now called Seed Global Health, what was established and operated by his daughter, Vanessa Kerry. The shenanigans unfolded as follows:

• First, Vanessa Kerry helped establish a Peace Corps program that would send medical resources into poor countries. 
• The State Department decided to fund the program. 
• The Peace Corps then turned around and took that funding and awarded the money, in the absence of competition and competitive bidding, to a non-profit organization, Seed Global Health, that Kerry had turned around and created just for the program she originally created for the Peace Corps. 
• The initial funding of $2 million came when her father was chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations which oversees both the Peace Corps and the State Department. 
• Another $6.4 million was awarded to Ms. Kerry’s little non-profit in September, 2015 when her dad was the head of the State Department. 
• This second grant of millions of dollars was also not competitively bid. 
• Government documents cited in the article show how the various government and non-government parties involved conspired and made sure that there was no competitive bidding for the money and the project so that Ms. Kerry’s organization would control the entire award. 
• Ms. Kerry started drawing a salary via the non-profit in 2014 with tax filings showing she awarded herself an annual salary of $140,000 for which she worked only 30 hours a week. 
• Adding insult to injury, the Peace Corp usually has a time limit of five years on all of its contracts but violated that tenet when the allowed Ms. Kerry to have a seven year contract that included no competitive bidding.

Maybe it is garbage like this that caused 78% of Americans polled in the Chapman University survey cited above to place corruption as the number one issue in their minds relative to what to be afraid of. This is a conflict of interest on so many levels along with the potential wasting of taxpayer wealth. But as always with American politicians today, specifically John Kerry in this case, they have no shame and guilt, they are only in the business for their own self-enrichment. Insane.

3) Through his actions, I have found Barack Obama to be the most self-centered, narcissist President of my lifetime, based on any number of actions:

• When he spoke at the funeral of the Hawaiian Senator Daniel Inouye, a decorated World War II soldier and long time Senator, Obama mentioned himself far more times than he mentioned the Senator. 
• When Neil Armstrong died, Obama sent out a picture of himself looking up at the sky with no visual of Armstrong at all:

• When Rosa Parks’s bus rebellion was being celebrated, Obama posted a picture of himself sitting in the bus seat where Rosa Parks sat but with no visual of Rosa Parks at all:

• When Muhammad Ali died, Obama published a picture of himself underneath an Ali picture:

You get the point with this limited set of examples. And these points and his narcissism was driven home again on the 15th anniversary of the 9-11 attacks. A moment of silence to remember the victims of the 9-11 attack on the Pentagon was scheduled to begin at the exact same moment that the plane hit the building on September 11, 2011, a highly symbolic tribute to those that perished.

But apparently, according to news reports, Obama was restless and ordered that the moment of silence be moved up according to his wishes. A Department of Defense official confirmed to news sources that the decision to move up the moment of silence was on Obama’s order.

In the big picture, this is not a big deal. But it again verifies that American politicians, like Obama, view themselves as the center of the world, that we should pay homage to them and their wishes and whims when in reality they are employed by us. Was it really that much of an imposition on this politician to sit still for a few extra minutes to symbolically honor some brave Americans who died in the worst terror attack in our life times? Apparently it was.

Day Two of the latest political class insanity is in the books with a lot more to come. A good day today, conflict of interest, hubris on the part of the President on very solemn day, and very bad priorities vs. what Americans are worried about. More of the same 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:


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

May, 2016, Part 11, Political Class Insanity: More Obama Narcissism, More Failures In Syria and Iraq, FBI Playing Big Brother, 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. 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.

This is our 11th post this month on America’s political class insanity. It sets a record for this blog on covering such disgusting behavior from our nation’s politicians. It is a sad commentary on the state of the country and those that are supposed to be leaders. Let’s get started with our final look at this month’s insanity:

1) One of our favorite sites for gathering political class insanity is the Against Crony Capitalism website. On April 21, 2016, they discussed a very depressing topic and fact, namely that the United States now ranks 41st in the world when it comes to freedom of the press. Yes, one of the strongest tenets for freedom as enshrined in our Declaration of Independence, freedom of the press, has now sunk so low that 40 other countries represent that freedom better than we do, namely: “Congress shall make no law...freedom of the press.”

Thus, despite Obama promising to operate the most transparent Presidency ever, his spying on journalists, his hacking of their computers, his blocking Freedom Of Information Act requests from the press and others, and his use of executive orders to withhold information has pushed our freedom of press rights down so far that we now trail countries such as Burkina Faso, whatever and wherever that place is.

According to NPR:

• The U.S. is ranked 41 out of 180 countries in Reporters Without Borders’ World Press Freedom Index, which measures the “level of freedom of information in 180 countries.”
• According to the organization, the U.S. moved from 49 in 2015 to 41 this year, though it warned that the “relative improvement by comparison hides overall negative trends.”
• Citing the U.S. government’s “war on whistleblowers who leak information about its surveillance activities, spying and foreign operations, especially those linked to counter-terrorism,” and the country’s lack of a “shield law” that would allow journalists to protect confidential sources, the report takes a decidedly negative view of U.S. press freedom.

So much for that Obama promise. His administration has failed to lift us back to the high ideal of freedom of the press and that improving from a dismal 49th to an almost as dismal 41st “hides overall negative trends.” 

2) So if the Obama administration is viewed as destroying part of the First Amendment as it refers to freedom of the press, it looks like the FBI out in California might be destroying the Fourth Amendment. According to the CBS affiliate in California, the FBI, without warrants, put hidden microphones in public areas and listened in on and recorded conversations that may have gone on in such public areas as bus stops. Let me say it again: without warrants, a clear violation of the Fourth Amendment.

Jeff Harp, a CBS KPIX 5 security analyst and former FBI special agent said, “They put microphones under rocks, they put microphones in trees, they plant microphones in equipment. I mean, there’s microphones that are planted in places that people don’t think about, because that’s the intent!”

Additionally, according to the CBS reporting, agents hid microphones inside light fixtures and at a bus stop outside the Oakland Courthouse without a warrant to record conversations, between March 2010 and January 2011. The FBI says they are looking for evidence that real estate investors in some California counties are carrying out fraudulent real estate activities. Again, all of this without warrants.

Not unexpectedly, the lawyer of one of the investors is trying to get the recordings thrown out of any court proceedings on a Fourth Amendment basis: “Speaking in a public place does not mean that the individual has no reasonable expectation of privacy…private communication in a public place qualifies as a protected ‘oral communication’… and therefore may not be intercepted without judicial authorization.”

So we already knew that Obama hates the Second Amendment, Reporters Without Borders showed above he is not fond of the First Amendment and his FBI agents are abusing the Fourth Amendment in California. Insanity.

3) David Rutz, writing for the Washington Free Beacon on May 15t, 2016, reviewed the thoughts and words of former Defense Secretary, Robert Gates, on how he does not feel there is anyone left in the Obama administration that has the guts to question anything the President says. In other words, Obama has surrounded himself with "yes” men that dare not question their boss's thoughts and actions, a very dangerous situation to have when you are President of the United States.

I say dangerous because the Presidency touches and affects so many areas of life regarding just about every human being on the planet, that it is impossible for him or her to have in-depth knowledge of just a fraction of what is going on. That is why we have an executive branch and the President has Cabinet secretaries and staffs to provide him the insights and knowledge that he cannot possibly have. To ignore that input and information that others provide, is not a sign of leadership, it is a sign of ego and narcissism and it usually leads to disaster, kind of like the situation the country finds itself in today.

According to Gates in a recent TV interview: "I’m not sure how many people there are left in the administration at this point who are willing to have direct issues with him like that. I just don’t know.”

Recall that Gates is one of four Defense Secretaries Obama has had, with each lasting less than two years in that position on average. This would be one indication that anyone who disagrees with this President does not have a long term future in this administration. When one leader, whether in government or business, thinks he is the know all and be all of anything that goes on in his organization, that organization will operate sub-optimally since no person is an expert in everything...or even a few things. That is why there are subject matter experts. 

But as we all know, this President is smarter than all of us so how could anything he do possibly end up sub-optimally?

4) Staying with this theme of military and a President that acts on his own limited knowledge and experience, consider the following video clip where Congressman Seth Moulton takes apart the President’s lack of in depth understanding of the military reality Iraq and Syria. And how this President after seven and a half years in office still has no long term strategy for fixing the mess in those two countries. 

Congressman Moulton is a former U.S. Marine veteran who served multiple tours in Iraq. He is the type of person that Obama should be listening carefully to truly understand the reality over there. Instead, as the Congressman points out, this administration and President have no in-depth knowledge or strategy to fix what has been broken on his watch. All this being a symptom that Gates alluded to above, this President is too vain and ego driven to think anyone else is smarter than him.

Oh, by the way, Congressman Moulton is a Democrat in case you were about to start the argument that he was just another petty, anti-Obama Republican politician:

http://conservativevideos.com/obama-has-no-strategy-for-isis-despite-troops-in-combat/

5) One last piece of insanity today and it is a good piece of insanity, a former U.S. Marine really getting into it when addressing a letter to the First Lady and her husband. I will let it speak for itself:

Mrs. Obama

It sickens me that I have to take time to write you this letter. I am a Marine who doesn’t recognize color because every color has lived and died for you. You live in a free country to blame your poor pathetic life on the color of another man’s skin. All colors have given their lives for an educated woman to have the freedom to be so ignorant. I don’t blame black people for the ignorance that comes from your mouth. I love all colors because I love all that God creates. I don’t have to like you to love you and today is no different. I don’t like you or your husband because of your character hidden behind your skin. Isn’t it funny how the truth always reveals itself in time. You and your husband never showed this side of yourselves in 2008 before he was elected.

You both live better than 99% of the people in this world because of this country. You said that you are for the first time proud to be an American. Well, I will tell you that most of us are ashamed of you. You and your husband have become millionaires off the people of this country, but demonstrate very little appreciation for all that we give.White, black, brown or indifferent millions have fought and died for you to have the freedom to say the ignorant things you say. You are educated, but clearly have very little common sense. You blame past generations of Americans for the troubles of a few. Stop blaming white people for your misery and take a look at yourself in the mirror. We are all responsible for our own happiness and misery. The KKK is ignorance wrapped in a sheet while the Black panthers are raised on ignorance and hate.

No different from the cult of Islam thinking their race is better than all other men. God is love and creates every color to include our skin. To truly love God is to love all that He loves. For that I love each of you and pray that we all start taking responsibility for our own damned sins.

Martin Luther King had a dream that we would all live in the promise land. He is not remembered for being black. He is remembered for the love, and character he had within his heart. If you don’t like this country get on that plane and never come back. I will stay here and love all Americans, regardless of skin. I will love the beauty of what God created and stand tall with my American friends. Not because of their color but for the character and love they carry within. This country doesn’t owe you anymore than it owes me. So many have thanked me for my service and I will always be grateful. I pray that one day you and your husband might cause me to be grateful for yours. You will never be remembered as the First Lady of Color but soon forgotten after you leave the White House. You nor your husband shall ever divide us. I wish you no harm, but pray you will get the hell off of this American land…

If you wish to find me I am now a writer for the DC Gazette. Also on Twitter @mshep08_mike …God bless you and Semper Fi

Well said, a good way to end this month’s political class insanity, an honest and true American telling the head of the American political class to shut up and go away, something a lot of us would like to do if the opinion polls can be believed. This former Marine did it for us.

Eleven days of political class insanity, an all time record for this blog. And the sad thing about the record: we will be right back here early next month with more insanity and idiocy from the American political class.

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

Even The Washington Post Is Starting To Wonder If President Obama Is Unworthy Of A Second Term

Last week we ran a three part series on why we felt President Obama was unworthy of a second term in office. We came up with 88 reasons that covered a wide range of areas including economic failures, foreign policy failures, blaming everyone else in the word for his failures except himself, sitting silent while his Democratic Party partners slandered and demeaned Americans for simply having an honest difference of opinion with the administration's views and policies, and several other broad areas. I suggest you read the detailed three part series for the detailed reasons and the logic and data behind our conclusions.

Earlier this week, we had to publish five additional reasons why President Obama is unworthy of a second term, reasons that we missed within the listing of the original 88. Fellow citizens were quick to point out these additional reasons, which were as valid as our original 88.

Now, it seems that at least one writer for the Washington Post has independently come up with his own set of reasons why the President is unworthy of a second term. While his reasons are not as detailed or quantitative as ours, he does cover many of the same broad areas of disappointment and dismay that we have been subjected to by this Presidential administration over the past three years.

The reasons this editorial piece is so critical and surprising, is that I have found the Washington Post to generally have a small but distinct bias in their reporting and writing towards favoring the Democrats within the American political class. It is my opinion that I usually have seen their writers to take a favorable and go easy approach when reviewing the Obama administration's record.

To have one of their writers come out and accurately summarize the failures of this Presidency is frankly, quite shocking and surprising. I would have expected such a piece out of Fox News, not the Washington Post.

I have included his words and thoughts below for your review and analysis:

**********

The Washington Post



Obama: The Affirmative Action President by Matt Patterson (columnist - Washington Post, New York Post, San Francisco Examiner)

Years from now, historians may regard the 2008 election of Barack Obama as an inscrutable and disturbing phenomenon, a baffling breed of mass hysteria akin perhaps to the witch craze of the Middle Ages. How, they will wonder, did a man so devoid of professional accomplishment beguile so many into thinking he could manage the world's largest economy, direct the world's most powerful military, execute the world's most consequential job?

Imagine a future historian examining Obama's pre-presidential life: ushered into and through the Ivy League despite unremarkable grades and test scores along the way; a cushy non-job as a "community organizer"; a brief career as a state legislator devoid of legislative achievement (and in fact nearly devoid of his attention, so often did he vote "present") ; and finally an unaccomplished single term in the United States Senate, the entirety of which was devoted to his presidential ambitions. He left no academic legacy in academia, authored no signature legislation as a legislator.

And then there is the matter of his troubling associations: the white-hating, America-loathing preacher who for decades served as Obama's "spiritual mentor"; a real-life, actual terrorist who served as Obama's colleague and political sponsor. It is easy to imagine a future historian looking at it all and asking: how on Earth was such a man elected president?

Not content to wait for history, the incomparable Norman Podhoretz addressed the question recently in the Wall Street Journal:

"To be sure, no white candidate who had close associations with an outspoken hater of America like Jeremiah Wright and an unrepentant terrorist like Bill Ayers, would have lasted a single day. But because Mr. Obama was black, and therefore entitled in the eyes of liberaldom to have hung out with protesters against various American injustices, even if they were a bit extreme, he was given a pass."

Let that sink in: Obama was given a pass -- held to a lower standard -- because of the color of his skin. Podhoretz continues:

"And in any case, what did such ancient history matter when he was also so articulate and elegant and (as he himself had said) "non-threatening," all of which gave him a fighting chance to become the first black president and thereby to lay the curse of racism to rest?"

Podhoretz puts his finger, I think, on the animating pulse of the Obama phenomenon -- affirmative action. Not in the legal sense, of course. But certainly in the motivating sentiment behind all affirmative action laws and regulations, which are designed primarily to make white people, and especially white liberals, feel good about themselves.

Unfortunately, minorities often suffer so that whites can pat themselves on the back. Liberals routinely admit minorities to schools for which they are not qualified, yet take no responsibility for the inevitable poor performance and high drop-out rates which follow. Liberals don't care if these minority students fail; liberals aren't around to witness the emotional devastation and deflated self esteem resulting from the racist policy that is affirmative action. Yes, racist.

Holding someone to a separate standard merely because of the color of his skin -- that's affirmative action in a nutshell, and if that isn't racism, then nothing is. And that is what America did to Obama.

True, Obama himself was never troubled by his lack of achievements, but why would he be? As many have noted, Obama was told he was good enough for Columbia despite undistinguished grades at Occidental; he was told he was good enough for the US Senate despite a mediocre record in Illinois; he was told he was good enough to be president despite no record at all in the Senate. All his life, every step of the way, Obama was told he was good enough for the next step, in spite of ample evidence to the contrary. What could this breed if not the sort of empty narcissism on display every time Obama speaks?

In 2008, many who agreed that he lacked executive qualifications nonetheless raved about Obama's oratory skills, intellect, and cool character. Those people -- conservatives included -- ought now to be deeply embarrassed. The man thinks and speaks in the hoariest of cliches, and that's when he has his teleprompter in front of him; when the prompter is absent he can barely think or speak at all. Not one original idea has ever issued from his mouth -- it's all warmed-over Marxism of the kind that has failed over and over again for 100 years.

And what about his character? Obama is constantly blaming anything and everything else for his troubles. Bush did it; it was bad luck; I inherited this mess. It is embarrassing to see a president so willing to advertise his own powerlessness, so comfortable with his own incompetence. But really, what were we to expect? The man has never been responsible for anything, so how do we expect him to act responsibly?

In short: our president is a small and small-minded man, with neither the temperament nor the intellect to handle his job. When you understand that, and only when you understand that, will the current erosion of liberty and prosperity make sense. It could not have gone otherwise with such a man in the Oval Office.


*****
Sounds familiar. It is never his fault. No discernible accomplishments, either prior to the White House or while in the White House. Standing by when others within his domain denigrate America and those in it. Refusing to take responsibility and leadership. Instead, "so confident in his own impotence."

We called it a condescending attitude towards all who disagree with him since he seems to think he is smarter than everyone else. However, I like the use of "the sort of empty narcissism on display every time Obama speaks" as a better description of how this man approaches life.

88 reasons last week, five more reasons this week plus the above essay today. Time to look for some real change (and actual plans) this fall which can be found at www.unitedstatesofpurple.com. Check it out, no narcissism allowed.




We invite all readers of this blog to visit our new website, "The United States Of Purple," at:

http://www.unitedstatesofpurple.com/

The United States of Purple is a new grass roots approach to filling the office of President of The United States by focusing on the restoration of freedom in the United States, focusing on problem solving skills and results vs. personal political enrichment, and imposing term limits on all future Federal politicians. No more red states, no more blue states, just one United States Of America under the banner of Purple.

The United States Of Purple's website also provides you the formal opportunity to sign a petition to begin the process of implementing a Constitutional amendment to impose fixed term limits on all Federally elected politicians. Only by turning out the existing political class can we have a chance of addressing and finally resolving the major issues of or times.

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.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.repealamendment