January, 2017, Part 9, Poltiical Class Insanity: Going After Whistleblowers, A Pariticpation Trophy For Obama, Another Pelosi Dlusion 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) Obama promised to operate the “most transparent” Presidency ever. He then proceeded to delay Freedom Of Information Act requests at every turn, hound and spy on journalists, lie about any topic under the sun and look to prosecute more whistleblowers than all previous Presidents combined.

Consider the case of Department of Homeland Security special agent Taylor Johnson:

• Back in 2013, Johnson found that certain visa applicants from countries like China, Russian, and Pakistan were gaining entry into the country even though there had been no or minimal attempts by the Feds to verify the intent and background of these applicants.
• Johnson appears to have been a model agent with many awards and no disciplinary problems on her record and thus, she tried to do her job and address this potentially dicey applicant issue.
• But she got in trouble with this endeavor when she held up a visa for a foreign investor in a Las Vegas casino that was represented by the son of former Senate Majority leader, Harry Reid, his son, Cory Reid.
• The Senator than complained to her supervisors who, according to Johnson, began hassling her and downgrading her position and responsibilities.
• She ended up going to Congress to voice her complaints when she did not get satisfaction from her supervisors.
• For her honesty, she was eventually fired and offered a $100,000 severance package if she would keep her mouth shut, which she refused.

Another example of the “most transparent” Presidency ever. Insane.

2) We have often shown how the American political class have very little basic economic sense or basic economic business sense. Politicians are always interfering in the economy with stupid, useless, and burdensome regulations, that increase business operating costs or divert business owners attention so much as to take away from their ability to grow and sustain their businesses.

Such was the case with a recent article by Chris White, writing for the Daily Caller website on January 9, 2017:

• A popular NYC restaurant, "China Fun,” announced that it is closing its doors after 25 years because of what the owners called a “stifling regulatory environment” that treated the restaurant as a “cash machine.”
• According to Albert Wu, a representative of the restaurant and son of the owners: “The climate for small businesses like ours in New York have become such that it’s difficult to justify taking risks and running — never mind starting — a legitimate mom-and-pop business,” reading from a letter posted by the owners in the Chinese restaurant’s front door.
• The owners complained about the city’s endless amount of paperwork that had worn them down over the years: “When we started out in 1991, the lunch special was $4 a plate,” Wu said. “Now it’s $10, $12. The cost of doing business is just too onerous.”
• One of the regulations that helped kill the restaurant was that the restaurant had to have a break room for employees even though their space was very limited.

So as a result of boneheaded regulations, China Fun employees not only no longer have a break room, they no longer have jobs.

3) What would a batch of political class examples be every month without an inane Nancy Pelosi quote? During a recent CNN interview, Pelosi claimed that the Obama Care legislation had been passed with bipartisan support: “But by and large the whole process was done with the 60 votes – hundreds of hearings, bipartisan, over and over again.”

Which means that she and I have a very different definition of “bipartisan:”

• Every Democratic Senator in the Senate voted for the legislation. 
• Not a single Republican Senator in the Senate voted for the legislation.
• Just about every Democrat in the House of Representatives voted for the Legislation.
• Not a single Republican in the House of Representatives voted for the legislation.

I do not think you can get any more non-partisan than that which again raises the question: what color is the sky in Nancy Pelosi’s world since she is not living in the world that I know.

4) President Obama did not serve in our armed forces. According to a recent Military Times survey, 51.5% view him very or somewhat unfavorably while only 36% view him very or somewhat favorably. But neither of none these realities prevented him from recently being awarded the Department of Defense Medal For Distinguished Public Service.

He received the medal from his Defense Secretary Ash Carter on January 4, 2017 during the Armed Forces Full Honor Farewell Review for the President held at Conmy Hall, Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall in Virginia. At that time, Carter stated that the medal was a token of appreciation for Obama’s time as commander in chief.

Which raises a semantic question in my mind: is it “distinguished” or a “token?” Those are two different things in my mind. Or was it just a “participation trophy” award because he just happened to be in the commander in chief, a role he did not fill that well, given what the personnel in the armed forces think of him?

That will do it for today’s insanity: a President giving himself a trophy, Nancy Pelosi still living in another world, over regulations still killing restaurants and the economy alike, and the Obama administration still tracking down whistleblowers. More insanity next 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

January, 2017, Part 8, Political Class Insanity: Obama Gives HImself A Trophy, Pelosi Still Out of This World,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) Obama promised to operate the “most transparent” Presidency ever. He then proceeded to delay Freedom Of Information Act requests at every turn, hound and spy on journalists, lie about any topic under the sun and look to prosecute more whistleblowers than all previous Presidents combined.

Consider the case of Department of Homeland Security special agent Taylor Johnson:

• Back in 2013, Johnson found that certain visa applicants from countries like China, Russian, and Pakistan were gaining entry into the country even though there had been no or minimal attempts by the Feds to verify the intent and background of these applicants.
• Johnson appears to have been a model agent with many awards and no disciplinary problems on her record and thus, she tried to do her job and address this potentially dicey applicant issue.
• But she got in trouble with this endeavor when she held up a visa for a foreign investor in a Las Vegas casino that was represented by the son of former Senate Majority leader, Harry Reid, his son, Cory Reid.
• The agent then complained to her supervisors who, according to Johnson, began hassling her and downgrading her position and responsibilities.
• She ended up going to Congress to voice her complaints when she did not get satisfaction from her supervisors.
• For her honesty, she was eventually fired and offered a $100,000 severance package if she would keep her mouth shut, which she refused.

Another example of the “most transparent” Presidency ever. Insane.

2) We have often shown how the American political class has very little basic economic sense or basic business sense. Politicians are always interfering in the economy with stupid, useless, and burdensome regulations, that increase business operating costs or divert business owners attention so much as to take away from their ability to grow and sustain their businesses.

Such was the case with a recent article by Chris White, writing for the Daily Caller website on January 9, 2017:

• A popular NYC restaurant, China Fun,” announced that it is closing its doors after 25 years because of what the owners called a “stifling regulatory environment” that treated the restaurant as a “cash machine.”
• According to Albert Wu, a representative of the restaurant and son of the owners: “The climate for small businesses like ours in New York have become such that it’s difficult to justify taking risks and running — never mind starting — a legitimate mom-and-pop business,” reading from a letter posted by the owners in the Chinese restaurant’s front door.
• The owners complained about the city’s endless amount of paperwork that had worn them down over the years: “When we started out in 1991, the lunch special was $4 a plate,” Wu said. “Now it’s $10, $12. The cost of doing business is just too onerous.”
• One of the regulations that helped kill the restaurant was that the restaurant had to have a break room for employees even though their space was very limited.

So as a result of boneheaded regulations, China Fun employees not only no longer have a break room, they no longer have jobs.

3) What would a batch of political class examples be every month without an inane Nancy Pelosi quote? During a recent CNN interview, Pelosi claimed that the Obama Care legislation had been passed with bipartisan support: “But by and large the whole process was done with the 60 votes – hundreds of hearings, bipartisan, over and over again.”

Which means that she and I have a very different definition of “bipartisan:”

• Every Democratic Senator in the Senate voted for the legislation. 
• Not a single Republican Senator in the Senate voted for the legislation.
• Just about every Democrat in the House of Representatives voted for the Legislation.
• Not a single Republican in the House of Representatives voted for the legislation.

I do not think you can get any more non-partisan than that which again raises the question: what color is the sky in Nancy Pelosi’s world since she is not living in the world that I know.

4) President Obama did not serve in our armed forces. According to a recent Military Times survey or our armed forces, 51.5% view him very or somewhat unfavorably while only 36% view him very or somewhat favorably. But neither of these realities prevented him from recently being awarded the Department of Defense Medal For Distinguished Public Service.

He received the medal from his Defense Secretary Ash Carter on January 4, 2017 during the Armed Forces Full Honor Farewell Review for the President held at Conmy Hall, Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall in Virginia. At that time, Carter stated that the medal was a token of appreciation for Obama’s time as commander in chief.

Which raises a semantic question in my mind: is it “distinguished” or a “token?” Those are two different things in my mind. Or was it just a “participation trophy” award because he just happened to be in the commander in chief?

That will do it for today’s insanity: a President giving himself a trophy, Nancy Pelosi still living in another world, over regulations still killing restaurants and the economy alike, and the Obama administration still tracking down whistleblowers. More insanity 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

July, 2015, Part 5, Political Class Insanity: Hunting Down Whistleblowers, Obama's Golf Hypocrisy, and More

At the beginning of each month we take a week or so to review the latest insanity from the American political class. Insanity from them includes a wide range of very depressing actions which can include wasteful spending, idiotic quotes, an inefficient and ineffective government bureaucracy, failed economic policies, etc. Every month we continue to prove that we are being served by the worst set of politicians ever.

And as you will see, this month’s review and discussions do nothing to prove that this thesis is wrong in any way:

1) We reported last month that the TSA airport inspectors had flunked simulated weapons and bomb searches 95% of the time when tested for the ability to identify airline passengers carrying weapons or bombs. One would have hope that the TSA would be putting all available resources towards fixing an error rate of 95% relative to the safety of the traveling public.

One could hope but one would be wrong. According to a recent Washington Examiner article, the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security, the home of the TSA, testified in front of Congress that he was investigating the leak findings of the undercover operation in which investigators were able to slip through airport security with weapons and phony bombs more than 95 percent of the time: “We have started an investigation to determine where the leak was,” Inspector General John Roth told the Senate Homeland Security Committee.

Yes, the TSA cannot do its job 95% of the time and they are looking for the person who exposed them, not doing everything possible to fix the situation. And why would they go headhunting, whistleblower hunting: “I was as disturbed as anyone that this information got into the media,” the inspector general said.

Whoever leaked the information should get a medal, not hunted down. Who knows if we ever would have found out how inept the TSA is, based on their failure rate of 95% in this test, and how we are certainly not getting our money’s worth funding such incompetence. Knowing how untransparent the Obama administration is, we need every whistleblower we can get.

2) But the airport whistleblower is not the only whistleblower to be harassed by the Federal government and the Obama administration. Taylor Johnson was a senior special agent for Immigration and Customs Enforcement ICE). a division within the Department of Homeland Security. Her story is even more harrowing since the Department actually identified her as a whistleblower and then, according to her statements to the press and Congress, they went after her with a vengence.

According to Fox News: Johnson told lawmakers she ran into resistance after investigating the so-called EB-5 program, which offers visas to investors. She said she looked into the program over concerns about security risks, questioning whether visas were being approved with little scrutiny.

According to a CSPAN transcript: “I began investigating the EB-5 Regional Center, and some of the violations investigated surrounding the project included bank and wire fraud and I discovered ties to organized crime and high-ranking politicians and they received promotions that appeared to facilitate the program. I disclosed this to my management and then specific examples of national security risks, and some of the security risks coincided with what the FBI and CIA already discovered as well. During the course of the investigation, I discovered applicants from China, Russia, Pakistan, Malaysia had been approved in as little as 16 days and the files lacked the basic and necessary law enforcement enquires,” Johnson said.

She did her job and then the following started to rain down on her:

• Other government agencies and high ranking Washington politicians started to complain about her findings.
• Their complaints resulted in her being removed from the investigation.
• She was placed on administrative leave and forced to turn in her weapon and credentials.
• But in her own words to Congress, it then got really nasty: “My government vehicle was confiscated, and access to the building and all government databases was revoked and I was told I could not carry my own weapon, which was a constitutional violation. When an adoption social worker tried to contact and verify employment, she was told I had been terminated for a federal offense and I almost lost my 1-year-old child. I am continuously placed in dangerous situations with no way to protect myself or others.”
• When asked to try to explain why the Federal government was coming after her, she opined: “I think that because of the people that were involved with the investigation, it was put in a different light and there was extra outside influences and back and forth with the different members and different agencies.”

Again, so much for the most open and transparent administration ever, just one of dozens of broken promises or outright lies from this Presidency. God bless the whistleblowers for their integrity and courage, two characteristic sorely lacking from today’s Washington politicians and bureaucrats.

3) One thing that the political class does very well is hypocrisy. Obama Care is great for the country...but not for Washington politicians. We all need to sacrifice for the good of the country...but no Washington politicians. We all need to do our part to fix the man made global warming/climate change problems… but not the President. 

Obama recently took another trip, an another expensive cross country trip to California, to attend several political fundraisers, one of well over seven hundred he has already done in less than seven years in office. He flew directly to northern California. At one of the fund raisers, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi heralded his visit to “a state that is in the lead on climate change.” Hurrah.

But that is when the bad optics started. Rather than stay in northern California to play golf, which I am sure has some great golf courses, the President hopped on Air Force One and traveled to southern California. Specifically, he flew to Palm Springs where he played golf on the ultra exclusive Annenberg Estate Sunnylands golf course. 

Thus, he took a large plane and burned lord knows how much carbon just to get to a far away golf course. He upbraids those of us that do not totally buy into the whole man made global warming theory. Cannot be that bad if you can jet around just to play a specific golf course. Or is this just another example of Washington hypocrisy, you out there in the country make the sacrifices while we continue to live the good life here inside the Beltway.

Even some of the liberal environmental groups got on his case for this lack of good sense. According to the New York Times, Friends of the Earth President Erich Pica said, “President Obama needs to take a mulligan and rethink golfing in Palm Springs in the middle of a drought.” And they were not the only ones to call out just another case of political hypocrisy.

4) One last piece of insanity for today. Despite veterans not getting the healthcare they were promised, despite millions of suffering drug addicts across the country, despite millions of people still not getting the medical care they need, despite millions of homeless and hungry Americans, the Federal government and the American taxpayer spent about half a million dollars for a Johns Hopkins effort to study the anal penetration of young black men.

Let me repeat that. Yes, in light of all the other suffering Americans, the Federal government sponsored a study to look at the impact of anal penetration of young black men: “Prior work has demonstrated that same-sex relationship trajectories support the development of self-esteem in young gay and bisexual men, while opposite same-sex relationships may be associated with homonegativity. Little is known about the meaning and function of first same-sex experience in AA adolescent men and whether satisfaction with first penetrative same-sex experience impacts sexual trajectories."

The study abstract, if you do not believe $500,000 was spent on this project, can be accessed at:

http://projectreporter.nih.gov/project_info_description.cfm?aid=8669742&icde=24280595

Let’s end the insanity here for today. Half a million dollars to study a very small sub-segment of Americans health and life issues while very large segments of Americans are still suffering in oh so many ways, a President who says one thing about global warming but does the opposite in order to not interfere with his golf addiction, and the Obama adminstration hunting down whistleblowers who are only doing their job and who actually care more about the country and its citizens than their own well being, a trait sadly lacking in today’s politician. More insanity 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:

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