Monday, May 8, 2017

May, 2016, Part 4, Political Class Insanity: Clinton Crime Syndicate Special

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) Looks like all of today’s political class insanity will focus on the Clinton Crime Syndicate starting with some of the shenanigans that Hillary Clinton pulled while serving as Secretary of State under Obama. According to reporting by the Daily Caller website:

  • A Bangladesh government commission is investigating the goings on at one of their banks, Grameen Bank.
  • The potential charges involve mismanagement at the bank during the tenure of Muhammad Yunus when he was managing director.
  • It turns out that Yunus was a major donor to the Clinton Foundation at that time also.
  • Sajeeb Wazed Joy, who is the son of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, has accused the Clinton State Department of using the State Department to send the IRS after him in an attempt to force the Bangladesh government to ease off their investigation into the Grameen Bank and indirectly Yunus as a favor for his donations to the Clinton Foundation.
  • Wazed Joy claims that he has been living here for many years and that previously he had never had any problem with the IRS or any arm of the Federal government.
  • Specifically, Wazed Joy claims that: “it was “astounding and mind boggling” that senior State Department officials between 2010 and 2012 repeatedly pressured him to influence his mother to drop the commission investigation….They threatened me with the possibility of an audit by the Internal Revenue Service. I have been here legally for 17 years and never had a problem. [But they said] ‘well, you know, you might get audited.’”
  • The Prime Minister herself has come out in support of her son’s accusations and claims: “Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said her son Sajeeb Wazed Joy had to face pressure from the US State Department to keep Muhammad Yunus as the Grameen Bank managing director,” the Dhaka Tribune reported.
  • Additionally, “Hillary Clinton phoned me and exerted the same pressure. Even the U.S. State Department summoned my son Joy three times and told him that we would face trouble.” 
Using and abusing the IRS and other government agencies to fulfill her personal greed and agenda, sounds about par for the Clintons and the entire Obama administration, who politicized the IRS to restrict the First Amendment rights of those with a different opinion than the previous administration. Lord knows how bad the Clinton Crime Syndicate would have become if she had actually won the election.

2) Alright, more Clinton corruption and sleaze. When Bill Clinton “accidentally” bumped into Loretta Lynch on an airport runway in Phoenix at the height of the Justice Department investigation into the Hillary email and private server scandal, he claimed they just had a nice casual chat about grandkids. 

No one with any sense of reality ever believed that story, the general conclusion was that he intentionally “accidentally” bumped into Lynch to pressure her to fix the investigation so that it would not interfere with his wife’s Presidential campaign.

And now the New York Times, a news outlet that is loathe to print anything bad about liberals, Democrat, or the Clintons, has actually put forth article that disputes Bill Clinton’s assertion about “only grandkids:”

  • The Times claims to have seen a document that proves collusion between Lynch and the Democrats to help Hilary’s ascension to the Presidency.
  • The Times article says that FBI Director James Comey re-opened the Hillary Clinton investigation, the same one he had shut down last July, because he suspected that Lynch was covering up Hillary Clinton’s transgressions.
  • According to the Times reporting, as told by Breitbart News: “Comey feared that Lynch — who had insisted the Clinton probe be referred to as a “matter” and not as an “investigation,” and who suggested that the investigation was not criminal when, in fact, it was — would declare the case closed, and then Russian hackers would leak the document to undermine the FBI’s image of independence.”
Given that this is now out in the open, namely that Lynch was a co-conspirator when it came to paving the way for a Hillary victory despite her law breaking and other shenanigans, you can probably be pretty sure that the “accidental” meeting of Bill Clinton and Lynch on a remote airport runway was not about grandkids.

3) Let’s not forget Chelsea Clinton when it comes to political class insanity. In a recent interview of her, the following exchange took place, an exchange that shows that Chelsea and her mother are still in pretty deep denial about mom’s loss last November:

Interviewer: “As someone who traveled across the country campaigning, were you surprised at the sexism that still exists?

Chelsea Clinton: I’m not surprised. I’m deeply saddened. I think it’s important for us to realize we can’t take progress for granted. Progress has to be continually defended as well as advanced. I think about this multiple times a day. It’s 2017, and we’re fighting again on fights that were settled a few years ago around gay rights, women’s reproductive health; fights to ensure we’re a country that’s always moving toward a more perfect union and not moving toward disunion, disunity, and segregation. We’re really in peril of moving backward. That’s not what I want for my children and their generation.”

She is not surprised and still think sexism still exists in this country and that was one of the reasons why her mom lost the election? Let’s consider some hard facts Chelsea:

  • Over 30 million women voted for Trump.
  • Probably tens of millions of men probably voted for Hillary.
There will always be some sexist people in the world Chelsea. Much like there will always be racists in the world. But to think that your mother lost the election because she was a woman, given 30 million women voted for Trump and tens of millions of men probably voted for your mother, is a ridiculous, reality denying statement. Your mother lost because she had no vision, she was corrupt, she broke the law, and she was personally greedy, having set up a beautiful con job under cover of the Clinton foundation.

Please, give us all a break and face reality. Better yet, face reality and please go away.

That will do it for today’s Clinton centric political class insanity. More overall political class insanity to follow this week.


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






Sunday, May 7, 2017

May, 2017, Part 3, Political Class Insdanity: Failing Basic Economics In NYC and Failing To Poroect the Citizens of Washington State...On Purpose

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:


With that context of honesty, let’s see what other insanity has been going down:

1) In a recent political class insanity post, we described the economic ignorance of the mayor of Philadelphia relative to a new city ordinance he put forth. The ordinance severely raised the taxes on sodas sold within the city limits with the pig headed assumption that if it became more expensive to buy sugar laden sodas within the city limits, his citizens would become less obese and healthier.

Of course, his ignorance of simple economics doomed this plan to failure from the start. Given that the higher tax on soda was only on city sales of soda, Philly residents simply went outside the city limits to purchase their sodas. Thus, the city residents did not get healthier, more energy was likely used and wasted going to purchase soda outside of the city limits, and the city’s economic health deteriorated as soda sales that would have flowed to city stores now flowed outside of the city to suburban stores. 

In addition, city residents who went outside of the city to purchase soda likely purchased other grocery goods as well while they were there. And many city residents lost their jobs as a result of residents migrating outside of the city limits to purchase their soda and other groceries.

This same ignorance is occurring again today but in the city of New York. There, the mayor also does not understand that raising taxes on something usually results in LESS tax revenue flowing to government coffers despite the higher tax rate and never resolves the underlying problem that kicked off the insanity to start.

According to a recent article in the National Review:
  • NYC recently raised the cost of a single pack of cigarettes to a nation wide high of $13 a pack.
  • This increase jacks up the price from an already sky high price of at least $10.50 a pack.
  • This is supposed to get people to stop smoking.
  • But as the article points out, you can walk into any number of local stores in the city and purchase a bootlegged pack of cigarettes for about $8.00 that have been purchased outside of the city limits and smuggled in to undercut the now exorbitant price of $13 a pack of a legally purchased pack.
  • Thus, the city has raised taxes and will likely get LESS revenue as a result, the same economic principle that was at work in Philly and their sky high soda tax.
  • Which means all this increase likely did is create more criminals feeding a market demand while intruding more and more into the lives and freedoms of Americans living in New York City.
Look, smoking is bad. It kills people. But so does heroin and cocaine. They have been banned completely. If the mayor was really serious about reducing cigarette use, why not make cigarettes illegal, just like heroin and cocaine? Why be a hypocrite?

But in reality, banning cigarettes would also be as ineffective as banning cocaine and heroin. The craving for these drugs and cigarettes still exist regardless of how the law treats them. Politicians never attack the root causes, in this case the addictions. Dry up the demand for cocaine, heroin, and cigarettes and you get results. Increase the tax and criminal burden on cocaine, heroin, and cigarettes, and you create more crime and more criminals.

And it is not as if raising cigarette taxes has worked for the city in the past. At the very high price $10.50 or more a pack, the smoking rate in the city is 14.3%. In Denver, where the average cost of a pack is $6.00 (less than half the price of a NYC pack), the smoking rate is 16%, less than 2% higher than in NYC. The national smoking rate is about 15%, even closer to the NYC rate.

Thus, is it worth the hassle, the decreased tax revenue, and increase in criminality to attain a difference of less than 2% vs. say Denver or less than 1% vs. the national rate? 

Attack the root causes with treatment and support, not increased taxes and laws. But that would require planning, and long term attention and support, two qualities that today’s politicians sorely lack.

2) One of the primary functions government, a list of which should be brief, is that of protecting the citizens which that government level serves. And one area this function covers should be both natural disasters (e.g. tornadoes, hurricanes, mud slides, etc.) and made made disasters (e.g. terrorist attacks, criminal elements, etc.). 

Okay, so far so good. And the state of Washington seems to be fulfilling that primary function very well...except in one area. According to V. Saxena, writing for the Conservative Tribune on May 1, 2017:
  • According to an actual law on the books (that I actually read on the state government website to confirm this story), the state government of Washington is by law prohibited from being allowed to prepare for a nuclear bomb attack.
  • Specific to law statute RCW.38.52.030: “The comprehensive, all-hazard emergency plan authorized under this subsection may not include preparation for emergency evacuation or relocation of residents in anticipation of nuclear attack.”
  • Additionally: “State law does not allow any advanced planning,” Karina Shagren of the state’s Emergency Management Division told local station KING.
  • Think about that for a minute: one would think that a potential nuclear attack would be of utmost importance and a top priority of a state government.
  • But in Washington state, government agencies and employees are by law not allowed to even plan for such a catastrophic contingency.
  • Which obviously raises the simple question of WHY NOT???
  • According to the article, the law was enacted in 1995 by a then Democratic governor but was written by state politician Dick Nelson. 
  • He has this idiotic idea and concept that he wanted to create “an example of peace” in writing and help to enact this inane piece of legislation.
  • And apparently he still has no regrets about this stupidity: “I haven’t abandoned my basic belief that we need to find peaceful ways of dealing with the nuclear threat.” 
Nice going Dick, I am sure Putin and the nut case in North Korea are having second thoughts about using nuclear arms all because of your “example of peace.”

That statement is obviously sarcasm. How can so-called leaders be that stupid to think that you thinking of peace is going to have ANY impact on despotic and dangerous dictators...even if they knew of the restriction which they probably do not.

And the good people of Washington will likely pay if some nut case somewhere in the world goes nuclear on the state of Washington since on purpose the political class in that state decided not to be ready or be prepared. That is why the call it emergency preparedness. Insane.

That will do it for today’s insanity but they were good pieces of stupidity: deliberately putting Americans at risk of a rogue nuclear attack in Washington state and still failing Economics 101 in NYC. More insanity to follow.


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








Saturday, May 6, 2017

May, 2017, Part 2, Political Class Insanity: NYC Education Insanity, Dangerous VA Insanity, And Elizabeth Warren Insanity

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:


With that context of honesty, let’s see what other insanity has been going down:

1) We have often discussed the reality that when politicians dabble in economics and economic theory and strategies they almost always screw it up. Another area the are real good at failing is education. Since the Federal Department of Education was founded several decades ago, the Federal government has likely spent trillions of dollars on education with little success. Our kids constantly lag behind the kids of other countries when it comes to educational attainment when measured on international tests.

And those trillions of dollars don’t include the trillions of dollars state and local governments have spent on education. Consider the sad state of education in New York City today, as documented in a recent National Review article:
  • The High School for Law and Community Service in the Bronx has a college-readiness rate of students leaving high school last year of 6.5%.
  • Brooklyn’s Academy for Young Writers has a college-readiness score of only 12.3%.
  • Brooklyn’s Victory Collegiate High School somehow has gotten its college readiness rating down to 2.7%.
  • The graduation rate of these special schools range from only 76% to 86%.
  • Only 36% of kids in NYC public schools can attain a passing grade in math and only 38% can do the same in English.
  • And for black kids, the math numbers are a pitiful 20% and the English numbers are only 27%.
  • And this pitiful situation is reached even though the city spends a whopping $23,516 a year on education expenses in the city per student.
Given this disgusting and pitiful situation, one would assume that the city politician would be doing everything possible to fix what is already in place and what is so dysfunctional. But that would be Mayor Bill de Blasio’s latest “reform”? He wants to create a Pre-Pre Kindergarten program in public schools. Rather than focus on fixing the existing grades and using limited resources to fix all of the above mentioned failures in the NYC public schools, he wants to take those limited resources and create a new grade for three year olds.

But the insanity get worse. According to the article, he needs $1.1 billion to start and run the operation city wide but has only found $36 million in the budget for the effort. Which raises an interesting question: if you have an extra $36 million laying around without a home, maybe using that money to fix the broken grades and educational processes that you already have in place might be a better use of those funds. 

Plus, we have written many times on how the Federal Head Start program has been a gigantic failure in giving kids a head start in getting educated. Study after study show that Head Start kids are no smarter and no better off when they get to real kindergarten than kids that do not attend Head Start programs. Given that actual history of failure, what makes anyone think that going even younger than Head Start is going to be anything but an expensive baby sitting service? You cannot make up stupidity of this quality.

2) We have often pointed out how useless and dysfunctional the Veterans Administration has been providing quality healthcare for our veterans. Many, many veterans have died while waiting to get to have their health care needs met while VA executives have fudged, changed, and manipulated data to protect their annual bonuses and high salaries. While Obama claimed for eight years that the VA performance was a disgrace and often pledged to fix it, his efforts fell pitifully short.

Another example of his failures was recently documented by an article by John Cooper and Jarrett Stepman writing for the Heritage Foundation on April 19, 2017:
  • According to their reporting, the VA inspector general announced on April 12,2017 that the Washington DC VA Medical Center was putting the 98,000 veterans it serves at “unnecessary risk.
  • And this was the interim report, meaning that things are probably worse than this first cut at the dysfunction.
  • In just over the past two years the facility had 194 patient safety reports regarding “the unavailability of equipment or supplies."
  • Last June, surgical staff used expired equipment during a procedure because of “the lack of an inventory management program.”
  • Eighteen out of 25 sterile storage areas were found to be dirty, leading the inspector general to conclude the center “lacks assurance that sterile supplies maintained their integrity.”
  • More than 27,000 items purchased by the facility, with a value of more than $150 million, have gone unaccounted for. 
  • In a bit of good news, the facility's director, Brian Hawkins, has been relieved of his duties at the medical center.
Unsterile equipment, expired equipment, likely stolen equipment and supplies, unavailable supplies, etc. Even when the political class recognizes a problem, like Obama did many years ago, they still cannot resolve the problem either out of inability or apathy. 

3) Let’s finish today’s insanity with just a plain ridiculous politician's quote. Senator Elizabeth Warren has been a rant lately about a lot of things, most of which are either non-constructive or just plain stupid. Let’s go the stupid route today. Consider a recent tweet from her:

Our military force's diversity is its greatest strength. The Army Secretary must show genuine support for ALL of our men & women in uniform

Yes, having a diverse military force is our greatest strength. It is not the bravery of those that serve. It is not having the latest and best military equipment. It is not having the best training. It is not having the best strategists. It is not about having military satellites to help defend the country. It is because we have men AND women in the armed forces, simple as that. And simple she is, unbelievable. Does she really believe this nonsense?

That will do it for today’s insanity: stupidity and lack of common sense in the NYC mayor’s office, lack of accountability and improvements in the VA, and a Senator who continues to be clueless about reality. More insanity to follow.

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, May 2, 2017

May, 2016, Part 1, Political Class Insanity: MInimum Wage Insanity, Buying Too Many Government Cars, and Congress Resolving A Non-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.

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) Most of the world heard the story from last month on how aviation police in Chicago went onto a United Airlines flight and roughly and physically dragged a paying and sitting United Airlines customer from his seat to make room for a United Airlines flight crew. The poor customer ented up seriously injured, injured enough to be hospitalized.

Obviously, United Airlines put itself in the middle of a terrible public relations mess. The incident was all over the news and likely has had a significant impact on customer sales and financials. No one really wants to go on an airplane and then get physically dragged off despite paying for a ticket. 

In other words, the market is correcting terrible corporate behavior and customer service from a service provider. And, by the way, the airlines and the attacked customer have reached what is probably a lucrative settlement for the customer, costing the airlines plenty no doubt.

But of course, and unfortunately, the Washington political class thinks it needs to get involved, as outlined by an April 27, 2017 NewsMax article:

  • The House Transportation Committee scheduled hearings to hear from the United Airlines CEO and other airlines about the incident.
  • The official reason for the hearing is to see "what can be done to improve the flying experience for American travelers." 
  • Congressman Bill Shuster, who chairs the House committee holding the hearing Tuesday, got his name in the papers when he said the committee was looking for "much-needed answers about airline customer service policies and what is being done to improve service for the flying public."
Wonderful, Congress, as always, gets into the act, after the problem arises. The market and the lawyers have already cleared up the situation, the airlines have already taken steps to avoid these types of problems in the future, and life goes on. Except in Congress where action after the fact is a fact of life. Of all the problems facing Americans today, why are we wasting Congressional resources on such a gnat of a problem that has already been addressed? Insanity.

2) One reason we have an almost $20 TRILLION national debt is that the Federal government constantly spends money on stupid and unnecessary expenses. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently uncovered a whopping waste of taxpayer money:

  • Between 2011 and 2015, the Obama administration spent $1.6 billion to buy a whopping 64,500 cars at an average cost of $25,600 each.
  • This comes out to an unheard 1,290 new cars per state if you prorate the purchase.
  • Not only is the amount of cars mind boggling but according to the GAO, most of those cars are not used or are under used.
  • The biggest offenders were the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Justice, and the Department of the Interior.
  • But wasting money in the Obama administration was not restricted to buying tens of thousands of vehicles that were not needed but let’s not forget the half billion disaster called Solyndra, the bogus and failed solar panel company, the running of guns to Mexican drug cartels in the failed Fast and Furious campaign, and a myriad of other failed spending adventures.

Imagine how many hungry Americans could have been fed for that wasted $1.6 billion. Imagine how many drug addicted Americans could have been treated with that wasted $1.6 billion. Imagine how many additional teachers could have been hired with that wasted $1.6 billion. The misspending and bad priorities of the Washington political class and the Federal government continue to amaze and frazzle those that work hard to pay those taxes that get wasted with no redeeming social benefit.

3) We have often showed how at all levels of government, from local towns up through the Federal government, politicians have no economic education, common sense or strategy abilities. They institute economic policies that usually do the exact opposite of what they think will happen.

This is particularly true when it comes to drastically raising the minimum wage. The ignorant politicians think that they will be raising the living standards of the people working near the current minimum wage level. But they do not realize that wages are a major expense line of a business and when you raise the expense line of a business without raising the revenue potential of that business, bad economic things usually happen. 

And with the substantial raising of the minimum wage that bad something is usually that people get paid more but more people lose their jobs, i.e. the good news is that you got a raise, the bad news is that you lost your job. Consider how this simple economic process recently played out in Los Angeles:

  • Alan Stein, writing for the US Herald website, reported that the city of LA had recently raised the local minimum wage level to $15 an hour.
  • For a big company with a lot of employees, that means a big increase in its wages expense line.
  • Such a big company, namely Walmart, decided that raising the minimum wage in one of its LA stores made that store so unprofitable that Walmart made the right business decision and closed the store rather than lose money operating a store at a loss.
  • As a result, all of the residents who worked hard and pleaded with Walmart to put one of its stores in the residents’ Chinatown neighbor now no longer have that store, all because local politicians, wanting to look good for their minimum wage voters, have now turned those minimum wage voters into unemployed voters.
  • The article also reported on how even government entities pinch pennies when their wage line raises dramatically because the University of California Berkeley recently announced that it was laying off 500 workers because it could not afford the ramping up of the state minimum wage level.
The good news is that your wage level went up, the bad news is that you lost your job because your wage level went up.

That will do it for today’s political class insanity: stupid political economic actions, still wasting billions in Washington, and Washington politicians getting involved in a minor problem they should stay out of AFTER the problem has already been resolved. 

More insanity to come 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