May, 2017, Part 10, Political Class Insanity: Child Sexting In Washington, Out of Touch at the DNC, 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.

Today and for all of the insanity 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)The election of Donald Trump, if anything, proved that much of America is fed up with the antics, incompetence, and idiocy of the current members of the American political class. A recent article on the Patriot News Weekly website confirmed that observation:

• A recent ABC News/Washington Post found that a whopping two thirds of Americans believe that the Democratic Party is out of touch with mainstream Americans today.
• And the reality that the Democrats need to widen their appeal does not seem to have sunk in yet with their leadership and such people as DNC chairman Tom Perez.
• Although almost half of the country is current against the concept of abortion according to Gallup, that half of the country has now been cut off from the Democrats according to a recent Perez statement: “Every Democrat, like every American, should support a woman’s right to make her own choices about her body and her health. That is not negotiable and should not change city by city or state by state.” Bam, half the country possibly lost!

While I admire Perez sticking to his principles, he cannot have it both ways. Either accept the fact that almost half of the country, and a plurality of Americans, are against the concept of abortion, and consider their reasoning and feelings or move on and continue to be a minority party in this country. Sad that a politician cannot accept that maybe he or she is wrong and reexamine their views, very sad and insane.

2) What would a monthly review of political class insanity be without a murder body count from Chicago? As we have discussed many times, the local and state politicians in Illinois have stood idly by without a solution to the every escalating drug gang and drug cartel related violence in Chicago that claims hundreds of lives every year and results in thousands wounded by the gang and gun violence.

Recent body count numbers have not been any better:

• In a recent 15 hour period, there were 17 murders in the city, a record for intensity in a city where the gun and gang violence has been intense for years.
• This murder spree went down despite the fact that Chicago and Illinois have some of the toughest gun laws in the whole country.
• As a sanctuary city, the local politicians have allowed foreign criminal elements and gangs to set up shop knowing that local politicians will not work with the Feds to enforce current immigration laws and have them deported or put in jail, a reality that endangers innocent Chicago citizens every day.
• According to the Chicago Tribune, every death was the result of gang related activities.
• In one innocent according to the Tribune, Sarah Brazzle and her friend were shot simply because they happened upon a carjacking in progress.
• Local authorities confirm that many of central America’s most violent drug cartels have established themselves in Chicago including the Zetas, the MS-15 cartel and others.

The carnage goes on and the local political class has no concept of how to fix the terrible violence.

3) A recent NewsMax May 19, 2017 article highlighted one of the more despicable politicians to recently serve in Congress and how he recently got his just rewards:

• Former New York Congressman Anthony Weiner recently pleading guilty to criminal charges that he had been sexting online with a 15 year old girl.
• Yes, a former member of Congress admitting guilt in sending sexual material to a minor just a few years removed from voting on legislation that affects all of our lives and our families.
• He agreed not to appeal any sentence that ran from 21 to 27 months and he will have to register as a sex offender once he gets out of prison.
• He was found out about his lewd and disgusting behavior when a North Carolina girl reported him, telling authorities that she and Weiner had been exchanging lewd messages for several months and that at one point the former Congressman asked the 15 year old to strip on camera while he watched.
• The investigation and FBI examining his laptop revealed that his laptop contained classified State Department emails that Hillary Clinton had sent to Weiner’s wife, Huma Abedin, Clinton’s top conifdeant.
• This behavior comes on the heels of information from several years ago that led to his leaving Congress that for years he had beensexting with several women despite being married and a member of Congress.

As we have said many times, our political processes are so broken that a pervert like Anthony Weiner can serve in Congress for many, many years,come into possession of sensitive government documents, and vote on important legislation that affects us all despite totally questionable and disgusting judgement.

4) One more set of perversion and insanity for today. According to Melissa Quinn, writing for the Washington Examiner on May, 18, 2017:

• A Secret Service officer, who was assigned to the White House, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for sexting with minors.
• The agent, Lee Robert Moore, will also have to register as a sex offender and will be on supervised watch for the rest of his life.
• He pleaded guilty to enticing a minor to engage in sexual activity and trying to send lewd materials to a minor.
• Apparently, he sexted with minors while on duty at the White House.
• He was eventually caught via a sting conducted by the Delaware State Police.

At one time Congressional members and Secret Service agents were viewed with respect and awe. They it appears that at least one of them in each organization is a child sex offender, tarnishing the entire organization they both work for. No wonder that two thirds of Americans think the Democrats are out of touch with America, not when this type of behavior of Washington insiders becomes more and more common and politicians do nothing about it.

Such violent and disgusting insanity today, more to follow in the coming days.

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

Anthony Weiner - Dishonored But Still Worth A Million

By now we well aware of the dishonor that ex-Congressman Anthony Weiner brought down on himself, Congress, the country, and his constituents. Finally, after weeks of not doing the honorable thing, the Congressman finally resigned and left behind his place in Congress.

As he left, I wondered what the American taxpayer now owed him from a benefits and pension perspective. Even though his behavior was despicable, I assumed that he was not immediately going to go into the poor house, given how the political class takes care of themselves.

It did not take long to find out. An article on June 17, 2011 by Jack Hough at Smart Money's website explained how well the ex-Congressman will do at the expense of the American taxpayer. According to Mr. Hough, Mr. Weiner will eventually receive over a million dollars worth of pension benefits despite his pathetic and childish antics. The article lays out the details of his compensation quite clearly:

• Weiner is covered under the Federal Employee Retirement System which provides a defined benefit pension plan.
• The plan is a minimal cost to Federal employees and politicians, requiring a covered person to pay less than 1% of their annual pay into the system.
• The ex-Congressman was in Congress for only twelve years and was earning the standard Congressional salary $174,000 in 2011.
• Weiner can start taking a discounted pension of about $25,000 a year starting at age 56 (he is currently 47) or he can take a full pension of $35,000 a year at age 62.

With the average 10 year Treasury yield currently at 2.9%, a regular American would need to have $1.2 million worth of assets in order to generate $35,000 a year in retirement. How many Americans have that kind of money in their possession that would be needed to match the Congressman's pension benefit? Probably not very many.

Not too shabby. The article contains another comparison to a regular American trying to save for retirement:

• The example assumes that this regular American saves $12,000 of his own money each year in a 401k plan.
• These savings are matched up to $3,000 by the American's employer and generates an annual yield of 3.8% a year (the average stock market return over the past 12 years).
• After 12 years, this regular American would have $231,000 in their 401k plan.
• If they somehow were able to get their investment return up to 5% a year until they were 56 years old, this American would be able to draw down $15,000 a year in retirement funds (40% below what Weiner will get) at age 56 and $20,000 a year at age 62, more than 40% less than Weiner. And most of these regular Americans have caused far less anger, hurt, and dishonor than the ex-Congressman.

But there's more! As the article points out, not only does the average American get 40% less than the Congressman, the average American had to get that lower stream of retirement revenue using his or her own money. The Congressman invested very little of his own money, the American taxpayer funds his pension. This allows the Congressman, and politicians like him, to use their own money to open their own retirement 401k retirement accounts in addition to the virtually free pension programs for politicians.

But the fun doesn't stop here. They also pay into and receive Social Security benefits and get the best health care coverage possible, all at the taxpayer's expense.

Not a bad deal, over $1 million in benefits despite his actions and expulsion. But it gets better. Weiner's benefits are inflation protected. If inflation goes up, his benefits go up annually, courtesy of the American taxpayer. Many regular Americans who receive a pension never get a cost of  living increase, their pension payments are usually fixed for life when they start drawing their pension checks.

However, some insightful person might observe that comparing the ex-Congressman's benefits to the average American is not fair, given that his services are valued at $174,000, almost three times higher than the income of an average American household. He should be able to receive higher retirement benefits than the average American. The article provides no insights into this observation.

However, I have worked in corporate America and know many people that were or are in corporate America and one of them volunteered their retirement plans and details. We can use these details to standardize pension payouts of average, middle management corporate employees to political class pensions. In order to get to a common baseline for comparison, we need to account for differences in the working situations of both people and index them to a common base:

• My friend worked for 29 years to get their pension while the ex-Congressman worked for only 12 years.
• The Congressman's final salary was about 50% higher than my friends.
• My friend starting taking retirement at age 52 so their discounted annual payments had to be increased as if they had waited until 56 years of age like Weiner will have to do.
• My friend's pensions payments never increase for inflation, it is fixed for his entire life while the Congressman's pension payments will increase very year, based on inflation.

As a trained statistician, I believe that I properly and honestly took all of the available information and adjusted the variables to come up with a standardized comparison, the details of which I will not share here but which are available if desired. This approach and these results support what Mr. Hough found, i.e. the political class has given themselves a sweet deal:

1. If inflation averages 2% a year, Weiner will receive 18% more in value than my corporate friend, all other variables considered including life expectancy.
2. If inflation averages 3% a year, Weiner will receive 31 % more in value.
3. If inflation average 4% a year, Weiner will received 46% more in value.

No surprise no matter how you cut the data: the political class has taken a "let them eat cake" attitude towards the American taxpayer. No matter how much you dishonor the country, no matter how low your approval ratings go (recent Rasmussen polling shows Congress with an abysmal 9% approval rating), the political class has rigged the system to force the American taxpayer to overpay for their missteps, wasteful spending, moral shortfalls, and childish behavior even though they never seem to solve any major problem.

Several steps from "Love My Country, Loathe my Government" would finally end this charade and plundering of the taxpayer till by our politicians:

• Step 9 - this step would terminate the Federal pension program for newly hired Federal workers going forward in time. Given that a small and diminishing portion of most American workers do not have access to a traditional pension, it is not fair for them to fund something that they cannot get as they fund a rich pension program for Federal workers, including politicians.
• Step 39 - this step would impose term limits on all Federal election positions so that people like Weiner cannot serve a relatively short number of years yet receive robust pensions and health benefits for life.
• Step 41 - this step would prohibit any politician with a net financial worth over $3 million from drawing a paycheck while in office. It makes no sense for multi, multimillionaires in Congress, such as John McCain and John Kerry, to draw a salary in this time of financial distress. In addition, although not listed in the book, this step should have been expanded to also include pensions and health benefits. These politicians can afford to cover their own retirement needs and not burden regular Americans for their lavish retirement perks.

I wish there was a step that somehow covered sexting and obscene tweeting but when "Love My Country, Loathe My Government" was published I and the rest of the country had no idea how low a Federal politician could go. But the bigger issue is the contempt and aloofness of the political class in their attitudes towards us. Our politicians continually demonstrate how their welfare and careers take precedent over any other issue facing the country, no matter how major those issues are.

Mr. Hough's final paragraph pretty much sums it up: "The point here isn't that politicians don't deserve decent retirement plans. The last thing America needs is financially insecure lawmakers. But Weiner is getting the equivalent of a $1.2 million exit payment after serving just 12 years on the job." His behavior and dishonor is certainly not worth a million dollars.




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