Saturday, January 7, 2023

The Complete and Catastrophic Failure Of The Biden Presidency

 I have been voting in Presidential elections since the 1970s. Since then, I have never voted for a Republican for President. Long ago when I lived in New Jersey, I was a registered Democrat. Thus, I did not vote for Trump and am not a Republican by any stretch of the imagination.

However, there is no  doubt in my mind that Joe Biden is, by far, the worst President, at least in my lifetime. After two years in office, he has no accomplishments to brag about and the country is much worse off than I ever thought possible along so many perspectives.


Thus, today’s discussion will simply be a list of his failures and the negative impacts those failures are having on all of us. On one hand I want to lash out at him for the damage he has done. But on the other hand, I actually feel sorry for him. There should be no doubt in anyone’s mind that he is, and has been, in the throes of significant cognitive decline since even before the election.


He gets confused easily. He cannot give any presentation without the use of a teleprompter and many times even that does not help him. He gets lost while out in public, wandering about until one of his handlers physically has to direct him to safety. He lashes out at reporters and others for no good reason. He is forgetful. He tells lies and stories that are just not true. 


Having been a co-guardian of an  elderly uncle for years, an uncle that suffered horribly from dementia, it  is my non-medical opinion that Biden has gone down the same road as my uncle. Easily upset, forgetful, confused, longing to be in  familiar surroundings, etc. 


Thus, it is not totally his fault he has screwed up the country as much as he has. I blame his wife, his family and political handlers for putting him through such a stressful experience. In my opinion, they are all guilty of elder abuse. Nevertheless, whoever’s fault it is, the Biden presidency has resulted in the following dire conditions in the country (listed in no particular order):


  • Inflation is roaring ahead at levels not seen in four decades.

  • Gas, utility and some food prices have increased by double digit amounts in the past two years.

  • The stock market just had its worst year since 2008.

  • The automobile sales market had its worst year in the past decade.

  • Our energy independence gained under Trump has been wasted away as Biden has terminated the Keystone Pipeline and has restricted oil drilling throughout the country which has forced the country to start buying crude oil from the likes of Venezuela, a country with a tyrant as its leader.

  • When he drained the Strategic Oil Preserve to alleviate the 100%+ increase in gasoline prices, much of the released crude oil went overseas, including China, and not into the oil stockpiles in this country.

  • For the first time ever, a President has threatened to use our armed forces against Americans who have decided to exercise their right of free speech in support of the Second Amendment.

  • Biden has used the FBI as a Gestapo-like organization to hassle his political opponents such as pro-life supporters, a pillow maker, parents who simply question the actions of their school boards, and  others.

  • His border policies have  allowed millions of illegal immigrants to enter the country which has resulted in billions of dollars of American taxpayer wealth to be used to house, feed, medically treat, and educate illegal  immigrant families and kids while millions of Americans go homeless and hungry.

  • His border policies have allowed unheard of amounts of deadly fentanyl to enter the country, resulting in skyrocketing deaths of Americans from fentanyl fueled drug overdoses.

  • His border policies have allowed drug cartels, central American criminal syndicates, human trafficking gangs, and terrorists to enter the country, resulting in actual and potential violence to American citizens.

  • He has failed to support local governments as these local governments have seen their crime rates escalate dramatically over the past two years, much of which was caused by his failed and porous border policies.

  • He has failed to curtail the political and territorial ambitions of Russia (Ukraine), China (Taiwan), and North Korea (expanded nuclear weapons capability).

  • His withdrawal of the U.S. military presence from Afghanistan has to go down as one of the most botched and failed endeavors ever undertaken by the Federal government, resulting in the unnecessary deaths of 13 U.S.  service personnel, an unknown number of unnecessary Afghanistan citizens’ deaths, and the creation of one of the most powerful armies in the world, the Taliban, by leaving behind billions and billions of dollars worth of U.S. military hardware behind.

  • When the bodies of those brave deceased service people from Afghanistan were returned to this country, Biden's behavior at their arrival was a disgrace, as he continually looked at his watch, as if he was bored and wanted to be  someplace else, when their coffins were rolled out of the plane delivering them home, dishonoring those who he had not protected.

  • His cabinet is likely one of the weakest Presidential cabinets ever assembled, whose members have  no idea how to execute their jobs, from the Secretary of State to the head of the Department of Transportation to the head of the Department of Energy, unknown, ineffective bureaucrats.

  • He has continued to enrich himself and his family members by using his political  influence around the world (Ukraine, Russia, China) to the benefit of himself and his family.

  • While a millionaire many, many times over, I have seen no evidence that he has donated his Presidential  salary to worthy causes like Trump did, keeping his salary for himself despite his lofty millionaire status.

  • Biden continued his history of racially insensitive remarks when he referred to a former black Congressman and current senior advisor as “boy” and also referred to the Japanese golfer who won the Masters golf tournament as “boy.”

  • His support and signing of the “Inflation Reduction Act” shows he has no economic knowledge at all since according to economic experts (e.g. the Wharton School and the Congressional Budget Office), the legislation will  result in, at best, a miniscule reduction in inflation and is likely to cause more inflation as it increases the Federal  debt load, it will increase taxes on businesses which will stunt economic and job growth, and will increase inflation as businesses pass those tax increase impacts along to the consumer.

  • Like Presidents before him, he has no plans, no intent, and no brain power to fix the major issues of our times: hundreds of thousands of Americans are still homeless every day, millions of Americans are still hard pressed to feed themselves and their families every day, thousands of Americans are still dying from drug addiction every month, Social  Security is still hurtling towards insolvency, Medicare and Medicaid are still hurtling towards insolvency, our public schools still continue to under educate our kids, our nation's infrastructure is still falling apart, and the national debt is rising ever higher.


Hard to argue that Biden is not the worst President in many, many years. From economic disasters to foreign affairs failures to failed and fatal  immigration policies, there is nothing he has done in two years to offset the additional hardships he has placed on American families and businesses. 


And  worse yet, he apparently has  no plans or ability to fix what he has broken or to fix what are the major issues facing every American. While he invites drag queens to the White House, Americans are still homeless. While he spends almost 150 days away from the White House at his Delaware homes, American families are  struggling to feed themselves in these high inflation times. While Americans were suffering and dying due to the holiday weather, he jets off to the Virgin Islands on vacation. 


It is a disgrace of a Presidency and a disgrace that his family, friends, and political  allies put him through the Presidential process as we watch his awareness of reality diminishes every day and with it, the possibility of fixing the any of nation's problems.


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:


January, 2023, Part 3, Political Class Insanity: High Tax States' Financial Death Spirals and Biden's Coddling Of Illegal Immigrants While Americans Suffer

 It is the beginning of another month which means it is time again to review the latest political class insanity from the American political class. Each month it takes us multiple posts to cover the wasteful spending, incompetent government organizations and employees, government programs that usually make a problem worse than resolving it, inane and idiotic politician comments, etc.

To review past posts on this insanity and idiocy, just click on the first few posts in each month listed to the right of this page. After reviewing just a handful of these insanity posts we think you will agree that we are currently being served by the worst set of American politicians ever to hold office in our entire history.


1)We have often discussed the concept of the “financial death spiral” as it relates to state governments across the country. The spiral unfolds as follows:


  • The state’s politicians spend much more money than they take in via taxation.

  • Then, rather than reduce government spending and waste, those politicians decide to raise taxes and make their state residents and businesses poorer in the process.

  • As a result, some residents and businesses leave so that they will be able keep more of their hard earned income.

  • This reduces the tax base and the tax revenue the state government collects.

  • Rather than reduce government spending, the state politicians cut services to residents and businesses and raise taxes.

  • This causes more residents and businesses to flee the state which reduces the tax base which results in  lower tax revenue and the spiral is underway.


People basically want to be as free as possible in their lives and that includes keeping as much as their wealth as possible to spend anyway they see fit for themselves and their families. Eventually, we have predicted, a state government will have to declare bankruptcy as their debt and spending eventually drives off enough tax revenue producers and their financial viability collapses. Seems they never significantly reduce government spending, it is almost always more taxes will  fix everything.


Our past analyses from several different angles always shows that the following states are the most likely to go bankrupt first:


  • Illinois

  • New Jersey

  • New York

  • California


Our current bet is that Illinois will  go bankrupt first but the other three are also strong candidates.


Has anything changed since our last analysis? We do not think so since the “Annual Movers Study” has been  published. This annual study documents moving patterns of residents' across the country. i.e. are more people moving out of a state or moving into a state. If those moving out are significantly higher than the number of people moving in, then the reduction in the tax base and the death spiral is likely underway.


So what states are hemorrhaging residents at the fastest:


  • New Jersey - New Jersey is the leading state losing residents since last year 68.5% of the state’s movers were outbound while only 31.5% were inbound. This is not surprising since New Jersey has been in the top ten of losing residents for the past ten years.

  • Illinois was second relative to residents fleeing with 33.5% of the movers being inbound to the state which was about half of the outbound rate, 66.5%.

  • New York - New York  held down the third spot with a 36.9% inbound rate and a 63.1% outbound rate.

  • Connecticut - Connecticut was in fourth place with a 37% inbound rate and a 63% outbound rate.

  • California comes in sixth in this list with 43.1% inbound and 56.9% outbound.


The states listed above are known to have some of the highest taxation rates in the country: high property taxes, high income taxes, high gas and utility taxes, taxation on retirement accounts, etc. Thus, it is not a surprise why so many more people are leaving vs. coming into these states. In addition, as tax revenue dries up, government services are cut including law enforcement which has resulted in spiking crime rates in the above states.


The politicians in these states just do not get it: higher and higher taxes drive out productive, tax paying residents and businesses to the long term detriment of the state government’s financial viability.


A state government cannot stay viable forever if for every new resident, two existing residents exit the state. The financial death has to eventually kick in as the tax base shrinks.


2)While the above study looks at total movers, U-Haul also does an annual study of people moving into and out of states. Their analysis found that:


  • California just led the nation again, for the third year in a row, for most outbound moves relative to inbound moves based on U-Haul moving vehicle rental data.

  • According to the Santa-Barbara News Press, “U-Haul saw the highest demand for one-way equipment from California outbound residents, and saw the highest net loss of one-way U-Haul trucks from the Golden State” as residents fled like bats out of hell to escape the blue state’s socialist utopia of homeless shantytowns and toxic algae blooms. The report also notes that the state has seen a 12% uptick in the number of people getting the heck out of dodge, noting that “343,230 more Americans moved out of California compared to those who moved into it” and marking the third year in a row that the state has hemorrhaged people leaving for greener pastures.”

  • The most popular places for Californians to move to are Texas and Florida,  states with significantly lower income, gas, utility, and other taxes and lower crime rates.

  • And it is not only residents who are fleeing a deteriorating quality of life situation in the state, over 350 companies, both big and small, including such names as Tesla, State Farm Insurance, and Charles Schwab, have moved their headquarters and other facets of their businesses out of California.


Politicians do not get it: people want to be free of high taxes, high crime, and a lower and  lower quality of life. The move numbers don't lie.


3)As we have discussed many timers, at any point in  time:


  • There are about 500,000 to 600,000 homeless Americans living on the streets of this country.

  • There are millions of American families that are struggling to feed their families.

  • About 30 million Americans do not currently have health insurance coverage.

  • Tens of thousands of Americans are dying every year, and increasing numbers, due to drug addiction.


Keep these numbers in mind relative to the failure that is Biden’s atrocious performance relative to illegal immigration:


  • Biden has removed just about any barrier that was in place along our southern border that was meant to control illegal immigration into this country.

  • As a result, literally millions of unknown illegal immigrants have illegally entered the country, overwhelming local government resources along border states.

  • This rush of  millions of people probably included drug cartel, human trafficking, international criminal syndicates, and terrorist organization individuals, all of which place American  lives at stake and in danger.

  • As a result, millions of foreigners have been taken into custody.

  • Last year, American taxpayers paid $324 million to house feed, and provide medical care to these illegal  immigrants while in custody

  • This does not include the billions of dollars that the American taxpayers pay to care for illegal  immigrants when they are released from custody and spread out across the country.


Based on  analyses we have discussed previously, that $324 million could have provided over 100 million meals to the hundreds of thousands of homeless Americans. That $324 million  could have provided a year’s worth of drug addiction treatment for almost 50,000 drug addicted Americans. It could have provided health insurance for thousands of American families.


You get the idea. The priorities of this administration and Washington in general do not have Americans at the top of the list. By opening up the borders, Biden and his administration are siphoning off billions of taxpayer dollars to pay for non-Americans while needy Americans go hungry, homeless, drug addicted, and without health insurance. Very, very bad priorities.


That will do it for today. State politicians driving their own state governments into bankruptcy and Biden and Washington taking care of foreigners while Americans suffer. Inept, incompetent, and insane.


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:


Thursday, January 5, 2023

January, 2023, Part 2, Political Class Insanity: Fatal Failures of the American Political Class, From California To Chicago To Philadelphia to DC

 It is the beginning of another month which means it is time again to review the latest political class insanity from the American political class. Each month it takes us multiple posts to cover the wasteful spending, incompetent government organizations and employees, government programs that usually make a problem worse than resolving it, inane and idiotic politician comments, etc.


To review past posts on this insanity and idiocy, just click on the first few posts in each month listed to the right of this page. After reviewing just a handful of these insanity posts we think you will agree that we are currently being served by the worst set of American politicians ever to hold office in our entire history.


1)One of the very basic functions of any government is to protect the lives and property of the citizens it serves. Any successes in other endeavors are insignificant if a government entity and the politicians that operate it cannot protect the lives of its citizens.


Unfortunately, over the years we have shown that one of the worst, if not the worst, set of politicians at protecting the lives of its citizens are in Chicago. Every year it seems the violence and murder rates continue to climb and the local politicians have no idea how to fix this very basic failure:

  • Over the recent New Years weekend 28 residents of Chicago were shot and 7 died from their wounds.

  • This is probably a pretty normal weekend for the city when it comes to violence and homicides.

  • Those that died included a 9 year old boy who was killed while inside his house.

  • A teenage boy was shot to death and three other teenagers were wounded in a car to car shooting.

  • For the year, Chicago had 723 of its citizens murdered and almost 3,000 wounded.

A failure of a political class and government entity if there ever was one.

2)While Chicago has been a hotbed of murder and violence over the past several years, with no relief or solution in sight, the city of Philadelphia is becoming another prime example where local politicians cannot find a solution to the violence and in the process, protect the lives of its citizens:

  • Philadelphia recently wrapped up 2022 with over 500 murders for the second year in a row.

  • Those murders ranged in age from 9 years old to 78 years old.

  • Seven of those killed were kids under 14 years of age.

  • The murder total has not been this high since 1990 when 500 people were killed during the crack cocaine crisis.

  • In 2014 248 people were murdered in the city and thus, the murder totals have  doubled in the past seven years, really accelerating after Philadelphia went through its own, stupid “defunding the police” charade.

Again, if a government entity cannot protect the  lives of its citizens, it is a failure, clear and simple, and a failure of its local political class.

3)Politicians are great at the old adage, “Do as I say, not as I do.” The examples of such behaviors have been covered many times in this blog and will not be reviewed again here. If interested, type “do as I say”  in the search box above to get some posts where these heinous, hypocritical behaviors are documented.

Biden recently exhibited similar behavior over the holiday week:

  • Biden has been carping about man-made climate change for years and how Americans need to sacrifice how they heat their homes, how they should never get cheap gas for their cars, and how their behaviors are bad for the environment.

  • Congress recently passed a bloated and debt laden 2023 budget bill that will cost the American taxpayer $1.7 TRILLION and resolve none of the crises facing the country.

  • Joe Biden went on vacation to the Virgin Islands and never got around to signing the legislation even though it was passed well before he left on vacation.

  • Turns out the legislation had to be signed by December 30 in order to keep the government operating, a date when Biden would still be on vacation.

  • Thus, the Biden White house decided that they would fly the actual legislation down to the Virgin Islands for him to sign before December 30, resulting in unleashing unnecessary carbon output into the air, something he has nagged us about for years.

Again, do as I say, not as I do.

4)Speaking of Biden’s vacation, consider the heartless optics of his Virgin Islands vacation. The country was encased in a massive cold front that was spewing ice and snow all over the country. This horrific storm was caused major transportation, heating, and power problems for millions of Americans. Dozens and dozens of people died as a result of this storm. 

And yet he still went on vacation to the tropics. And from what I can gather, really showed no compassion or statement of concern for those freezing their lives away while he sunbathed on the beach. Total absence of leadership and empathy.

5) Continuing with the above theme that any government that cannot protect it citizens is a failure, consider a unique and very dangerous situation out in California:

  • Liberal  politicians across the country spent the past years implementing “defund the police '' programs where they gutted their police force resources.

  • At the same time they degraded, verbally attacked, and did not support their local police organizations. 

  • These actions have resulted in higher crime, fewer criminal convictions, more dangerous cities, low police force morale, and extreme difficulty in hiring and retaining trained police officers.

  • As a result, citizens are dying, being robbed, and being raped in ever growing numbers as police forces are demoralized, under staffed,  and under resourced.

  • And now we have seen the extreme effects of all this defund the police nonsense.

  • In Tehama County in California, the county sheriff’s department has publicly announced that due to a “catastrophic staffing shortage throughout the agency,” the department will no longer patrol the streets and protect citizens during the day, only at night.

  • So if you are a local criminal, your chances of being caught for your criminal acts just got much smaller if you commit those acts during the day when there would be no sheriffs around to prevent your criminal actions.

  • In a statement the sheriff's department basically blamed the city’s politicians for insufficient funding which resulted in the inability to staff and function properly.

Good luck to Tehama county residents, during the day you are basically on your own.

Another day and another set of political class failures across the country, often with fatal results.

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:


Wednesday, January 4, 2023

January, 2023, Part 1, Political Class Insanity: Another Defunding The Police Disaster, More Congressional Insider Trading, and More Foreign Aid While Americans Suffer

 It is the beginning of another month which means it is time again to review the latest political class insanity from the American political class. Each month it takes us multiple posts to cover the wasteful spending, incompetent government organizations and employees, government programs that usually make a problem worse than resolving it, inane and idiotic politician comments, etc.


To review past posts on this insanity and idiocy, just click on the first few posts in each month listed to the right of this page. After reviewing just a handful of these insanity posts we think you will agree that we are currently being served by the worst set of American politicians ever to hold office in our entire history.


1)As we have discussed, there are a lot of suffering Americans in the country today:


  • At any one time there are anywhere from 500,000 to 600,000 homeless Americans roaming the streets of the country.

  • In  this time of high inflation, there are millions of American families struggling to feed their families.

  • The death rate from drug addiction is skyrocketing in this country as Biden has opened the southern border and allowed a flood of cheap fentanyl to come into the country.


And  yet despite the suffering, and deaths, of millions of Americans, where has Waashington decided to send billions of tax dollars? To Africa to combat climate change:


  • The Biden administration is sending $8 billion to Africa to encourage those countries to shut down their coal burning plants.

  • Even  if you think that man-made climate change is a real thing, wouldn't it be a  kinder, more humane use of $8 billion to shelter, feed, and provide drug addiction treatment for Americans in need today instead of wasting money on a problem that may or may not exist decades in the future?

  • That $8 billion could provide about 2.7 billion meals to hungry Amerians, or about  4500 meals for the current homeless population in the country, or three meals a day for that population for about four years, certainly a better, more humane, and more immediate benefit than sending $8 billion overseas chasing climate change.


Oh, by the way, that $8 billion pales when  you consider that the Biden administration has already sent $68 billion to Ukraine in their battle against the invading Russians. That $68 billion could feed, shelter, and treat a lot of suffering Americans.


2)We have talked about how the inane “defunding the police” effort has resulted in skyrocketing crime and violence in major U.S. cities such as NYC,  Chicago, San Francisco, and elsewhere. But it is not just big cities where this stupidity has resulted in increased crime:


  • Burlington is the biggest city in Vermont even though it only has about 44,000 residents, a fraction of the population of other big cities.

  • Over the past few years, the politicians in the city decided, incorrectly, that defunding their police force was a good idea. 

  • Now, the crime rate in the city is at its highest rate in about 60 years.

  • And within that escalating crime wave is a rising rate of murders.

  • The crime statistics include five murders and 18 other non-fatal  shootings, which is a lot for a city with only 44,000 residents.

  • In 2020, the city’s politicians cut the funding for the city’s police force by about 30%, going from 105 police officers to 74.

  • The funding taken away from law enforcement went into so-called “racial justice” programs.

  • Obviously, those programs are not working if the crime rate has reached a 60 year high.

  • But this should  not be a surprise since the police force warned that such a drastic cut would result in increased crime but the city politicians did not listen and the residents of the city are paying the price.


We have  often pointed out that a basic, fundamental function of any government entity is to protect the lives and property of the citizens it is responsible for. Obviously, the politicians in Burlington are falling down on executing that basic government function.


3)The STOCK Act, passed by Congress a number of years ago was supposed to punish Congressional members and their staff members who indulge in insider trading. Obviously, people in Washington get access to all sorts of secret, undisclosed information that is invaluable from a personal investing perspective.


The STOCK was supposed to stop such insider trading, actions that get ordinary, and famous people like Martha Stewart, thrown in jail. But after the act was passed, with much fanfare, Congress eventually gutted the consequences of such actions. This allowed Washington insiders to commence insider trading activities with very little financial penalty, or jail time, if they got caught. In other words, the upside financial gain by insiders far outweighed the consequences if they got caught.


As an example:

  • A recent  analysis by the Insider news publication found that at least 77 members of Congress failed to report their financial trades and transactions as required by the STOCK Act.

  • This is about 15% of the sitting members of Congress and does not include those additional members that did not get caught.

  • Excuses by Washington politicians  for not complying with the law would make a fourth grader proud including clerical errors, accounting mistakes, and some even claiming they were not aware of the law.

  • Obviously, if the IRS was investigating us for insider trading, none of those excuses would keep us out of jail.

  • These 77 members of Congress could face fines totaling hundreds of dollars while their insider trading may have gotten many times more than this puny fine process.

  • After ten years, not a single member of Congress has faced any serious ramifications from their obviously illegal stock and insider trading deeds.


One of the very few things that American politicians do well is that old saying: “Do as I say, not as I  do.” And that trait has made many, many members of Congress, very, very rich.


That will do it for today: the  hypocrisy of Washington insider trading, sending billions of our tax dollars overseas while millions of Americans suffer, and another example why defunding the police was a stupid idea from day one.


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: