September, 2016, Part 1, Political Class Insanity: Pentagon Loses $6 TRILLION, Lies About Syrian Refugees, 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.

The current monthly record for the number of posts that were needed to cover one month's worth of insanity is ten. We almost equaled that record last month when we needed nine 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) We have often reported on how inept and messy the accounting processes are at the Pentagon. They are so messed up that professional auditors have thrown up their hands when trying to make sense of the financial chaos at the Defense Department. That impression continues to be the reality, at least according to a recent article on the World News Daily website written by Bob Unruh on August 17, 2016:

• An audit report from the inspector general of the Pentagon found that the Pentagon cannot account for a whopping $6.5 TRILLION.
• That is not a typo, it is $6.5 TRILLION or over $50,000 for every U.S. household.
• This has been going on for a long time since former Department of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld admitted $2.3 TRILLION was missing shortly after the 9-11 attacks. 
• This $2.3 TRILLION has almost tripled to $6.5 TRILLION.
• Specifically, the inspector general reported declared that “the office of the assistant secretary of the army (Financial Management & Comptroller) (OASA[FM&C]) and the Defense Finance and Accounting Service Indianapolis (DFAS Indianapolis) did not adequately support $2.8 trillion in third quarter journal voucher (JV) adjustments and $6.5 trillion in year end JV adjustments occurred because OASA(FM&C) and DFAS Indianapolis did not prioritize correcting the system deficiencies that caused errors resulting in JV adjustments, and did not provide sufficient guidance for supporting system-generated adjustments.”
• Suspiciously, the inspector general could not find out why 16,513 financial records had been removed from the Pentagon budget system in the third quarter of 2015.

The article referenced an organization called Armstrong Economics, that had also analyzed the inspector general report, and Armstrong did a simple, yet elegant, summary of what is going on with this financial incompetence: “Let[‘s] face the truth. Government is incapable of managing even a bubblegum machine. They are completely hopeless. This money is lining the pockets of unknown people and it is funding unknown military operations.” Brilliant insight, and I dare anyone to come up with a better explanation of these disgusting misuses of taxpayer wealth.

2) The next piece of insanity again tests the age old question whether politicians really do not know when they are telling a lie or think we are to stupid to check out what they say against facts and realities. Kathryn Blackhurst, writing for the Lifezette website on August 28, 2016, brings us the latest politician who apparently is living in a different reality.

Tammy Duckworth is running for the Senate in Illinois. She recently and publicly claimed that the United States and the Obama administration are only accepting refugees from the Middle East that are not military aged men. This is obviously a ploy to reassure Americans that we have nothing to fear from the refugees coming into this country since no men of military age are being admitted.

She actually doubled down on this assertion by going on to say all of the men in the families being admitted into the country are all dead: “To come to the U.S., the UN High Commission for Refugees actually selects largely families with no men of military age, and there are no men of military age in these families because the men are dead.” And furthermore, the people coming into the country as refugees, ‘They’re widows and orphans.”

Unfortunately, she did not tell the State Department about this reality because recent data out of the State Department shows that:

• More Syrian refugees being brought to this country have been men than women so far in 2016, 4,646 males vs. 4,333 women.
• 363 of the males coming in were aged between 21 and 30, prime military ages.
• 738 of the males coming in were aged between 31 and 409 years old, still of military age. 

Thus, the State Department says over 20% of the male Syrian refugees were males that could be considered of military age while Duckworth says 0% of the Syrian refugees were males that could be considered of military age, quite a reality disconnect. Was Duckworth that plain ignorant of reality or flat out lying, thinking no one would fact check her? So typical of the political class in this country today.

And also consider that a Middle East female immigrant of military age helped execute the San Bernardino terrorist attack and massacre and that the terrorist who shot up the night club in Orlando likely had help from his wife setting that attack up. So it is not just MEN of military age that we need to worry about, it can also be WOMEN of military age that we need to worry about. But that reality apparently is too tough for this politician to grasp.

3) If we have proven anything over the years, it is that politicians should not do much of anything when it comes to the economy since they usually and royally screw it up. Our most recent discussion on how badly Washington and the Obama administration have messed up the economy and economic growth can be accessed at the following link:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2016/08/how-badly-did-washingtonobama-butcher.html

Politicians’ latest economic insanity is this push to move the national minimum wage to $15 an hour. We have shown many times in this blog what happens when the minimum wage is jacked up so high so quickly: some employees get more money and a load of employees get fired because the economic model of the businesses and industries they are working in cannot afford much higher wages expenses. Thus, the good news is you can now earn $15 an hour, the bad news is because you can earn $15 an hour, your job has been eliminated.

Businesses use a number of tactics to survive when their wage expense explodes because of this nonsense. In the fast food industry, we now see the wider and wider use of self serve kiosks that allow customers to order their food without the need of a employee. Some industries move their businesses to other, lower cost locations, either across the county line or across the world to survive and avoid devastating wage increase expenses. Some businesses will take away other perks of the job to counterbalance the increased wage expenses such as free meals, free parking, healthcare support, etc. And some businesses just go out of business. 

Chriss Street writing for the Breitbart website back in April, 2016, illustrated this type of situation out in California:

• American Apparel, until recently, provided 10% of all the apparel manufacturing jobs in the city of Los Angeles.
• However, in just a two week period back in the spring, the company terminated 500 of its employees.
• Chief Executive Paula Schneider was quoted in the Los Angeles Times that “manufacturing of more complicated pieces, such as jeans, could soon be outsourced to a third-party company.”
• However, not said was the reality that two weeks before the layoffs, the state of California had raised the minimum wage to $15 an hour.
• Lloyd Greif, CEO of Los Angeles investment banking firm Greif & Co., summed up what was happening when he told the LA Times: “They’re headed out of Dodge. They are going to outsource all garments. It’s only a matter of time.”
• Although the LA apparel business had taken huge hits over the past twenty years because of cheaper goods being imported from the Far East, the domestic apparel industry in LA had been undergoing a revival as the imports got more expensive, making the domestic production more attractive.

But now, because of politicians meddling in the market and the relationship between business owners and business employees, which all had benefited from good trends in their industry is going to be lost. It looks like those trends will likely self destruct because of the political class pushing through a higher than doable minimum wage law. Insanity.

But even more insane is what Jerry Brown, the California governor said when he signed the law: “Economically, minimum wages may not make sense.” And yet, even though these laws do not make sense, he signed the law anyway, likely killing whatever competitive edge the LA apparel trade and industry had and killing a load of jobs with it.

He continued on with his completely false logic by stating: “But morally and socially and politically they make every sense, because it binds the community together and makes sure that parents can take care of their kids in a much more satisfactory way.” So the increase in the minimum wage does not make economic sense but we are going to do it anyway because it helps parents take better care of their kids. Huh? I bet that the 500 people already laid off as a result of this political class insanity do not feel this way since I would assume that by losing their jobs, they will NOT be able to take better care of their kids.

That will do it for today’s insanity, we are just getting warmed up. A governor who recognizes a piece of economic legislation makes no economic sense but he signs it anyway, a Senate candidate that is either a liar or just plain out of touch when it comes to Middle East refugees, and a Pentagon that has LOST over $6 TRILLION. More insanity for days and days to come.

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

June, 2016, Part 4, By The Numbers: So LIttle Are Taxed So Much, Refugees and Tuberculosis, and More

On a periodic basis we do some posts that fall under the theme of “by the numbers.” Rather than trust what the American political tells us about reality, we like to examine the real numbers and the real reality in the world to understand what is actually going on. Relying on politicians, and their cohorts in the media, to tell us what is reality is always a sucker bet. They have their own agendas and goals, usually centering around their needs and self-enrichment. So we need to look at the reality of the numbers to determine what is really going on.

Previous analyses of “by the numbers” can be accessed by entering the phrase in the search box above. This is the fourth and final post this month where we look at the numbers to truly find out how good, not likely, or bad, most likely, the American political class is doing in managing our tax dollars, protecting our freedoms, and resolving major issues that affect all of us. 

1) According to a recent NewsMax article that quoted another article by the Washington Free Beacon’s analysis of IRS data:

• Americans that earned six figure incomes paid 79.5% of the country’s share in individual income taxes in 2014. 
• That year, Americans paid a total of $1,358,093,169,000 to the IRS in individual income taxes. Americans earning $100,000 or more paid $1,079,392,180,000 or 79.5% of the total. 
• While the top earners paid almost 80% of all individual income taxes they account for only 16% of individual tax returns.
• The top fifth of earners pay at a 14% tax rate while the middle fifth of earners pay at a 2% rate on average.
• If we include all Federal taxes, the highest earners had a Federal tax rate of 29% while the overall tax rate for the middle class was less than 15%, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

The reasons to review these numbers is twofold:

1. First, to put so much of the Federal government revenue stream on so few people is extremely dangerous. These folks have the resources to move out of the country, which they have been doing at record rates over the past few years, taking their wealth taxes, and wealth creating potential with them. As they move, the rest of us will have to pay more and more in taxes since the political class has not reduced spending, continuing to waste our tax dollars on stupid, ineffective, inefficient, and inane projects and programs.
2. Second, at what point does taxation become repression? Is it fair for the high earners to be taxed at a tax rate seven times more than the middle earners? It is one thing to ask those better off to pay at a higher rate but at some point it becomes abusive, especially since those spending the taxes, the Washington politicians do not spend it to fix our crumbling infrastructure, help the homeless, the hungry or drug addicted, better serve the middle needs of our ailing veterans, fix our failing schools etc. 

Just another example of our pathetically counterproductive 70,000 page tax code.

2) Obama and other liberals seem hellbent to assuage their guilt feelings and admit a lot of Syrian and other Middle East refugees into this country. Of course, if the Obama administration had not screwed up the whole Syrian strategy in the first place we might not even have this problem but that is a discussion for another day. 

Since it is our opinion that one of the few prime and legitimate functions of government is to protect its citizens from physical harm, the numbers in the following area show that the government might be following flat on its face on the whole Syrian refugee issue:

• According to a Breitbart article by Michael Patrick Leahy on May 17, 2016, 22% of newly arrived refugees coming into this country and settling in Minnesota test positive for tuberculosis.
• Nationally, only 4% of the U.S. population tests positive for this very bad disease, according to the Centers For Disease Control
• 26% of the foreign born cases of tuberculosis in Minnesota were in refugees from Somalia.
• The Minnesota Department of health reports that in 2015, the number of tuberculosis cases across the whole country increased for the first time in 23 years.
• A previous report from Breitbart reported how an unexpected outbreak of measles in Memphis, Tennessee originated at a local mosque in that city.
• The Centers For Disease Control also found that in 66% of the cases reported in 2014 were found among foreign born people, which is a rate 13 times higher than the rate of the disease for U.S. born people.
• According to the Minnesota Star Tribune: “Today four states – California, New York, Texas and Florida – have more than half the nation’s active TB cases, though they have only a third of the country’s population. The four states have the highest numbers of foreign-born residents.” 
• Across the world, tuberculosis kills 1.5 million people of which 500 to 600 of that total die in this country.
• Treatment for the disease is long and expensive, often taking up to nine months for someone to get healthy.
• In Michigan, a state with a large number of Middle East immigrants, the rate of tuberculosis infections was up about 25% from 2014 to 2015.

Protect American citizens, not sure the Federal government is doing that when it allows anyone to come into this country without first testing for any number of diseases. I guess that makes me a racist, according to some liberal types. But better to be live racist, at least in their eyes, than a dead American whose government decided that taking care of foreigners was a more urgent need than taking care of its own citizens.

3) But Minnesota is not the only state with a big tuberculosis problem. Consider some distressing numbers from the organization, Vermont Watchdog:

• 35% of recent refugees living in Vermont have tested positive for at least the latent form of tuberculosis.
• The Vermont Department Of Health has refused to tell the public how many of these 35% have the active form of the disease.
• The 35% level, while alarming, is actually down from a few years ago when in 2013, almost 44% of Vermont refugees had at least the latent form of the disease.
• Active tuberculosis is fatal in half of the cases that go untreated according to Vermont Watchdog.

Given these numbers, shouldn’t all Americans have a say in what type of refugee program is put in place and how it is operated in order to protect Americans’ health rather than burnish Obama's legacy?

4) Judicial Watch recently reported on some new corruption and wasting of American tax dollars in Afghanistan, a Federal government effort that may be the most wasteful, ineffective, and criminally infested government program of all time. Details of their corruption investigation found that:

• An amazing $113 billion has already been wasted in one form or another in the entire Afghanistan fiasco.
• The U.S. Department of Labor has given/wasted more than $11 million on a charity whose director earns a whopping $600,000 a year in salary, calling into question of how legitimate this charity is when they pay one person that kind of salary.
• That charity, the International Rescue Committee (IRC), is supposed to provide “vocational training for vulnerable Afghans.” 
• The Afghanistan inspector general wants to know how those millions were spent but so far with no luck, the money has not been accounted for as far as what it has accomplished.
• But according to the inspector general, this is not atypical in that a lot of the $113 billion spent so far has not been tracked, quantified, or accounted for.
• For example, the State Department spent $18.5 million to renovate an Afghan prison that was NEVER used, likely because the State Department person in charge of the effort was eventually convicted for accepting bribes from a contractor.

Taking care of “vulnerable Afghans.” How about taking care of vulnerable Americans first? How many homeless, hungry, sick and drug addicted Americans and veterans could have been taken care of with that $113 billion?

That's it for this month's by the numbers where we continue to prove the reality that the Washington politicians in office today are the worst, most inept, and the most wasteful spenders and wasters of taxpayer welath EVER. 

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

An Open Letter To President Obama: Why Syrian Refugees Over Struggling Americans?

Dear Mr President:

Obviously, the topic of Syria is on everyone’s mind these days including yours. This conflict has caused an unprecedented refugee problem and crisis as untold thousands of people flee the civil war and fighting in Syria.

You have made a commitment of bringing at least 10,000 of these refugees into the United States for settlement. Your passion for doing this deed has led you to insult millions of Americans who are insisting, through their elected officials, that this resettlement be delayed only until America can be convinced that no ISIS terrorists will be embedded in the refugee stream. 

Estimates have been published that the American taxpayer will have to put forth billions of dollars to accomplish this resettlement because of the associated housing, feeding, transportation and other costs of the refugees. You are obviously passionate about this issue. But do you mind if I ask you why you are not as passionate about Americans that are in need and why you are willing to spend billions of dollars for 10,000 foreign strangers while:

• More than 3.5 million Americans experience homelessness each year.
• On a typical night in 2014, more than 578,000 Americans were homeless.
• Nearly 2.3 million American children experienced homelessness in 2013.
• One out of every 30 American children experienced homelessness in 2013.

http://www.studentsagainsthunger.org/page/hhp/overview-homelessness-america

• Between 130,000 and 200,000 armed forces American veterans are homeless at any time.

http://www.nationalhomeless.org/factsheets/veterans.html

• The Department of Veterans Affair’s inspector general found that out of about 800,000 records backlogged in the agency's system for managing veterans’ health care needs, there were more than 307,000 records that belonged to American veterans who had died months or years in the past before their health care needs were addressed. 

http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/02/politics/va-inspector-general-report/

• 397,122 orphaned American children are living without permanent families in the U.S. foster care system. 
• 101,666 of these American children are eligible for adoption.
• Nearly 32% of these American children will wait over three years in foster care before being adopted.

http://ccainstitute.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&id=25&layout=blog&Itemid=43

• According National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System data, 50 States reported a total of 1,484 American children abuse fatalities in 2013.
• This translates to a rate of 2.04 American children per 100,000 children in the general population and an average of four children dying every day from abuse or neglect.

https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubPDFs/fatality.pdf

• About 45 million Americans are receiving Federal food assistance every month.

http://frac.org/reports-and-resources/snapfood-stamp-monthly-participation-data/#aug

• 2 million injuries and 1,300 American deaths are caused each year as a result of domestic violence.

http://www.clicktoempower.org/domestic-violence-facts

• Over 40,000 Americans die from a drug overdose every year

http://www.drugwarfacts.org/cms/Causes_of_Death#sthash.kPd7mzR6.dpbs

• Almost 14 million Americans are currently unemployed because they cannot find a job or are forced to work part time because they cannot find a full time job.

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf

Where was your passion when these millions of Americans were suffering from homelessness, food shortage, domestic violence, and other dangers? How are you able to find money in the Federal budget for 10,000 foreigners and not for these Americans?

And for once, please do not blame someone else for this suffering within our borders. During your administration, easily hundreds of billions of dollars were wasted every year due to government redundancies, wasteful government spending and inefficiencies, and outright criminal fraud of government programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.

Maybe if you had spent less time on over 200 golf outings, over 700 political fund raisers and many, many vacations, you could have found the time to tighten up government functions, spending, and operations, and had enough money not only for these refugees but for the rest of those in America that need a helping hand.

Senator Ted Cruz has dared you to return to this country and debate him face-to-face on the issue of increasing security scrutiny and screening. I dare you to look a hungry American child in the face, the widow of a veteran who died waiting for healthcare in the face, a homeless American family in the face and tell them why 10,000 foreigners get more attention, compassion, and monetary support  from you than these struggling Americans do. I dare you.

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