Showing posts with label rosa parks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rosa parks. Show all posts

Friday, November 1, 2019

November, 2019, Part 1, Political Class Insanity: Wasting $2.4 Million On Bathrooms, Liberals Turn on Hillary,and Obama's Ego Is Alive and Still Huge

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) We have often showed that public education is not in a really good place in this country and has not been in a good place for years. Our kids constantly score less on standardized tests vs. the kids of other nations despite us spending far more on education than every other country. And yet we constantly come across idiocy when it comes to spending and educational priorities in the public education system as Pennsylvania recently illustrated:

  • The Eastern Lancaster County (Pennsylvania) School District has apparently resolved all of the problems they have regarding education their kids because no other reason can explain what they recently decided to do.
  • Their leadership decided to spend a whopping $2.4 million at their Garden Spot High School to get rid of “gendered” locker rooms.
  • They are going to be replaced with so-called “zoned” facilities that can be used by any student regardless of their sex, natural or “identified.”
  • In other words, the schools district is going to incur a $2.4 million expense to cater to the needs of any transgender students, who are likely a very, very small portion of the student body.
  • According to the Lancaster Online website: “The step forward represents a “huge win” for Elanco students, district Superintendent Bob Hollister said. I think the privacy is going to be well-received.” Privacy has been a major issue of late. Elanco school board members, administrators and residents had debated for months a student privacy policy following community backlash over the district’s decision to allow a transgender boy to use the boys’ facilities at the high school.”
  • According to Board President Glenn Yoder“This is going to be for the good of all students.” 
It appears that this is not about a very, very small percentage of students, this is about a single student. But this is not the school board’s money so why not waste on a $2.4 million project for one student, it is the taxpayers’ money. Are we saying that there was not a much more economical solution where everyone gave a little and most of the $2.4 million could have been steered to better, education use?

The average teacher salary in the state of Pennsylvania is about $68,000 which means that this $2.4 million idiocy could have hired about 35 teachers for a single year, or five teachers for seven years. I am pretty sure that adding five teachers for a long period of time would have been a much better use of $2.4 million regardless of how inane someone thinks that “this is going to be for the good of all students.” Stupid statement and another example of government wasting hard earned taxpayer wealth.

2) Bill Maher is a raging Hollywood liberal. A lot of his previous statements about politics and politicians has been down right crude and disgusting and directed at conservatives and Republicans. As always, who really cares what a Hollywood liberal thinks?

But you do stand up and take notice when someone like Maher actually criticizes a Democrat. Hillary Clinton kind of made a fool of herself at the recent funeral of Elijah Cummings. She continues to prove that she has the warmth of a cold Arctic night.

And she has finally gotten under the skin of a Hollywood liberal in Maher:

  • Maher went on TV and suggested that Clinton skip the Democratic convention next year and just “go away.
  • Specifically, Maher said: “It seems like every few months, Hillary Clinton bubbles up again. And people are like, ‘Oh, she’s thinking about running.’ Or she says something crazy...The Clintons, they’ve got to go away.”
  • And he also took a shot at Hillary’s husband: “And Bill is damaged goods. And I just think they’ve got to go away. We can’t be associating them with the Democratic Party.”
Again, I never listen to the many repulsive and disgusting things Maher has said over the years about people who have a different opinion than his. But you know it is time for Hillary to hang it up if even Bill Maher cannot stand you anymore.

3) We have previously discussed the unbridled ego of Barack Obama. When Neil Armstrong died, the Obama White House released a picture not of Neil Armstrong but of Obama looking up in the sky. When the anniversary of Rosa Parks bus protest came around, rather publish a picture of Rosa Parks, the Obama White House released a picture of Obama sitting in the seat where Rosa Parks sat. When speaking at the funeral of Democratic Senator Daniel Inouye, Obama mentioned himself many more times than he mentioned the late Senator.

And apparently his self centeredness has not changed since leaving office:

  • According to David Curl, writing for the Daily Wire website, Obama spoke at the funeral of Congressman Elijah Cumnings.
  • According to Mr. Curl: “Cummings was a civil rights icon. Born in 1951 to sharecropper parents, he was destined for big things. When he was just 11, he led a group of boys to a whites-only pool in Baltimore and jumped in. Whites protested, holding up signs that said, “Keep Our Pool Germ Free” and “White People Have Rights Too,” the Washington Post reported. At one point, a mob “surrounded the pool, held back by a line of police with K-9 dogs, while the kids tried to splash and play. Then, over the police officers’ heads, the mob threw rocks and bottles. One of them hit Cummings in the face, cutting his eyebrow and leaving a scar he carried all his life.”
  • He went on: “Cummings attended college and then got his law degree. He served for 14 years in the Maryland House of Delegates and then won election to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he served until his death Oct. 17 at age 68.”
  • Obviously, Cummings did a lot of good, courageous stuff in his life.
  • But when Obama got up to speak at his funeral, in just a 15 minute speech, Obama mentioned HIMSELF 30 times, or two times a minute.
  • Obama used the word “I” 24 times, the word “me” 3 times and the word “my” another three times.
  • But his out sized vanity should not surprise us.
  • Back in April he gave a speech in Germany where he was supposed to talk about community leadership and civic engagement relative to his foundation.
  • But during a 90 minute town hall style meeting he somehow mentioned himself a mind boggling 467 times, more than 5 times a minute over a 90 minute session.
I never trusted people with big egos because they do things for the wrong reasons, their own self esteem rather than what is best for the people they are leading. Given the failed legacy of the Obama administration, where nothing good came out of it with the exception being the killing of Bin Laden, it should not surprise us that Obama continues to try and assure himself he is more important than he or his administration ever were. Given that his big ego resulted in a failed Presidency, maybe a little humility would have served him well.

Wasting $2.4 million of taxpayer money for no good reason, even liberals are turning on Hillary, and Obama’s ego is still high inflated, a good start for this month's political class insanity.

Sunday, December 4, 2016

Retro 7, Part 7, The Obama Presidency, The End Of An Error - Miscellaneous Failures and Disappointments

We originally ran this post back in October at around the 100 day mark of the final days of the Obama Presidency. We ended up running about seven blog posts which did a deep dive into the activities, acomplishmentsand failures of this Presidency. We found very little in the way of accomplishments but dozens and dozens of cases of falures and disasters, from the economy to foreign affairs to the basic concept of integrity. We are going to rerun those post over the next week or so as we close in on an end of an error, the Obama Presidency.

Part 7, The Obama Presidency, The End Of An Error - Miscellaneous Failures and Disappointments

As we near the end of the Obama Presidency, I thought it would be a good idea at the 100 day mark to review what he has done to and for this country over the past eight years. Before we do that, though, let me repeat my previous background statements on my past political actions:
  • I have never voted for a Republican Presidential candidate in my life and I have been voting since the the Nixon era.
  • Until 2010, I have never voted for a Republican for national office in my life.
  • I am not affiliated with nor do I associate myself with the Republican Party, conservatives or people like Donald Trump.
Okay, now that we understand where I am coming from, let me just say that in my opinion Barack Obama has been the most inept, most divisive, most narcissist and worst diplomat in my lifetime to reside in the White House. From the economy, to race relations, to the national debt, to foreign relations to government operations, to blatant disregard for existing laws and the Constitution, in just about any measure we are far worse off as a nation than prior to him coming into office.

We will breaking down the failures and disappointments of this administration into some broad categories that will take us a number of days to cover as we analyze “The Obama Presidency - The End Of An Error.” Over the past week we have touched on a number of broad categories of Obama’s failures:

Broken Promises and Lies: http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2016/10/part-1-obama-presidency-end-of-error.html

Broken Laws and Constitution Violations: http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2016/10/part-2-obama-presidency-end-of-error.html

Once a Community Organizer, Still A Conmmunity Organizer:  http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2016/10/part-3-obama-presidency-end-of-error.html

Foreign Affairs and Diplomatic Disasters: http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2016/10/part-4-obama-presidency-end-of-error.html

The Unimpressive Set Of Obama "Firsts:" http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2016/10/part-5-obama-presidency-end-of-error.html

Gross Economic Management: http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2016/10/part-6-obama-presidency-end-of-error.html

Today, will be our last review of the many, many failures of the Obama administration and we will focus on a bunch of miscellaneous failures and other stuff that I have found trivial, repugnant, and embarrassing from this administration over the past eight years. These topics are in addition to the failures we have already discussed over the past six posts including Obama Care failures, foreign affairs failures, economic failures, and the scores of broken promises and lies from this President.

Miscellaneous Failures and Other Stuff 

When Obama spoke at the funeral of the Hawaiian Senator Daniel Inouye, a decorated World War II soldier and long time Senator, Obama's ego and narcissism was so large that he mentioned himself far more times than he mentioned the Senator. 

When Neil Armstrong died, Obama’s ego and narcissism was so large that he sent out a picture of himself looking up at the sky with no visual of Armstrong at all:

Memorial: In an odd move, President Barack Obama's team uploaded a photograph of him gazing at the moon to remember Neil Armstrong, who passed away on Saturday


















When Rosa Parks’s bus rebellion was being celebrated, Obama’s ego and narcissism was so large that he posted a picture of himself sitting in the bus seat where Rosa Parks sat but with no visual of Rosa Parks at all:
Photobucket

















When Muhammad Ali died, Obama’s ego and narcissism was so large that he published a picture of himself underneath an Ali picture:
Image result for picture of obama underneath ali picture
















While on the Tonight Show, Obama joked that his bowling talents were the equivalent of a Special Olympics kid: “It's like -- it was like Special Olympics, or something."Class act, not.

Obama exchanged an Army deserter, Bowe Bergdahl, for five high value and dangerous terrorists who were imprisoned at the Guantanamo terrorist prison, endangering the lives of innocents all over the Middle East and the world.

He then turned around and invited the deserter’s parents to a White House press event and a private meeting with himself while ignoring the families and soldiers who were wounded and killed when they went out to rescue the deserter Bergdahl.

When a Ferguson, Missouri African American young man assaulted a store owner, stole from the store owner’s store, and tried to assault a police officer, actions that resulted in his fatal shooting by the police officer, Obama sent three members of his administration to the funeral. But when a young, Caucasian woman in San Francisco was killed while walking down an American street by an illegal immigrant, who had been arrested multiple times and deported multiple times but allowed to roam the streets by the Obama administration, the Obama White House was silent and sent no members of his administration to her funeral.

While over two dozen Americans were fighting for their lives in Benghazi, the President went to bed and then rose early to fly to a political fundraiser in Las Vegas.

His administration cooked up a lie about the cause of the Benghazi attacks in order to protect a campaign talking point and then lied to the world and the country via a United Nations speech.

He belittled and taunted millions of common American citizens that have legitimate scientific concerns and doubts about the whole global warming/climate change myth.

He played over 300 rounds of golf, attended a record number of political fundraising events, and went on many, many lavish vacations, after promising to have no personal life during his first Presidential campaign.

He took time off from work, despite the wide amount of issues and problems facing Americans today, to waste vast amounts of time to annually go on ESPN to discuss his college basketball March Madness picks, film an TV advertisement for a comedy show, he allowed himself to be interviewed by a lady who once filmed herself taking a milk bath filled with Fruit Loops, and wasted vast amounts of other Presidential time to go on many other TV shows.

Although he constantly promised to fix the broken processes and procedures at the dysfuncitonal Veterans Affairs Agency (VA), years later the VA was still totally dysfunctional with veterans not getting the medical help they need and were pronmised ansdmany dying as a result of this incompetence.

He enjoyed multiple vacations, rounds of golf, and political fundraisers while millions of Americans near the Gulf Of Mexico were fighting for their livelihoods and homes as a result of a massive oil platform disaster.

When American James Foley was gruesomely beheaded in the Middle East by ISIS terrorists, Obama treated this event as an inconvenience that was interfering with his golf tee time, throwing together a half ass press conference after which he immediately headed to the course, never consoling Mr. Foley’s family like he did for Army deserter Bergdahl.

Whenever someone says something negative about Islamic terrorism, Obama gets vocal and offended but as Islamic terrorists practice genocide against religious minorities across the Middle East he is silent.

Whenever someone says something negative about Islamic terrorism, Obama gets vocal and offended but as Islamic terrorists enslave and torture religious minority women across the Middle East he is silent.

He conducted secret nuclear weapons negotiations with the terrorist Iranian regime that resulted in secret side deals in addition to a horrible public nuclear arms treaty.

He paid a $400 million cash ransom for the release of four Americans being illegally held by the Iranian regime, simultaneously violating the current and long standing U.S. policy of paying ransom to terrorists and likely giving a cash infusion into Iranian terrorist activities around the Middle East.

He allowed his Secretary of State to operate a crime syndicate that traded U.S. interests and assets for massive personal financial gain of that Secretary of State.

His administration interfered with several ongoing FBI criminal investigations to ensure that his former Secretary of State never went to jail or was held accountable for her crimes and transgressions.

After declining steadily for decades, the national level of violent crime has reversed this long term trend and may be starting to rise again.

He allowed several members of his cabinet to use secret email accounts and processes in direct violation of government regulations and laws.

Over six years since the Dodd-Frank legislation was passed, whose intent was to ensure that the conditions that caused the Great Recession never occurred again, his administration has still not completed the necessary government regulations and rules to implement that legislation, rendering it useless.

The following failures of the Obama administration are also common to recent Presidential administrations. However, just because other, recent administrations were not successful in these areas does not mean that the Obama Presidency was also not a failure. Keep in mind that these failures occurred despite the Obama administration spending about $30 TRILLION during its tenure, in other words, about $25 TRILLION spent and we have only the following failures to show for it:

  • We are still under educating our kids relative to the kids around the world.
  • We still have no effective and overarching energy strategy to wean us off of foreign energy sources.
  • We still have no fair, comprehensive, and effective immigration policy.
  • Our borders are still not secure allowing illegal drugs, foreign criminals, and quite probably terrorists to enter the country, endangering the lives of Americans.
  • We are still losing the “War on Drugs.”
  • Government operations are still inefficient, ineffective, wasteful, criminally infested, and expensive.
  • Our country’s infrastructure is still falling apart.
  • Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are still rushing towards financial insolvency with no plans proposed or in place to prevent their financial collapse.
  • The possibility of peace in the Middle East has never been further out of reach.
  • Health care costs are still rising dramatically despite Obama Care with no solution to this debacle proposed or likely.
Now, please do not come back to me and say Obama cannot be blamed for these failures because Republicans impeded him at all times. This is a bogus argument for three reasons:
  1. In the first two years of his term, his political allies controlled both houses of Congress and he still was unable to get any of the above issues resolved except for passing the failed Obama Care legislation and the still incomplete Dodd-Frank regulations.
  2. He has not proposed any solutions to the impending failure of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, he has not proposed any comprehensive plans to bring peace to the Middle East, he has not proposed any solutions for our failing public schools, etc., so the Republicans could not have blocked any of his plans and solutions since he never developed and presented them inthe first place.
  3. Did I mention that his administration spent over $25 TRILLION and still could not resolve any of the above issues?
That will do it for our summary of the many, many failures of the Obama administration. They touched on just about any imaginable topic and area, from lies and lack of integrity to the unfolding disaster that is Obama Care to a completely failed foreign relations and diplomatic effort, etc., etc., This is the most ineffective, wasteful, and dysfunctional Presidency of my lifetime.

As we said previously in this series, eight years ago a community organizer with little international and Washington experience became President. Eight years later we have a soon to be ex-President who never matured into an effective leader, leaving office as the same small minded community organizer of eight years ago.



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





Tuesday, October 4, 2016

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:


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:

Memorial: In an odd move, President Barack Obama's team uploaded a photograph of him gazing at the moon to remember Neil Armstrong, who passed away on Saturday


  • 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:
Photobucket

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

Image result for picture of obama underneath 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