Love My Country, Loathe My Government

Friday, July 24, 2015

I Am Sick and Tired of [fill in the blank]

Just about every blog post we put out is based on scientific research, government reports, or verifiable news sources. From the beginning, we did not want a blog that was just a spouting out of opinion and views without a basis in reality. We were and are guided by an old saying goes something like this: “A__h___s are like opinions, everyone has one.”

But today, we are going to deviate from that disciplined approach. Today is a day for ranting and having an opinion. And shouting those opinions out. Because, really, at some point the more you listen to and observe the idiocy, ineptness, and selfish greed of the American political class, the more you want to scream. We have pointed out these characteristics of these politicians thousands of times in this blog:

We discussed how the U.S. Navy spent $300 million to build two ships almost to completion only to spend another $10 million to take them apart for scrap metal before they were ever used.

We have discussed the story on how the IRS sent 600 bogus tax refunds to a single address…. in Ireland.

We have discussed the test of TSA security procedures for identifying and confiscating weapons and explosives, a detection test that TSA employees failed well over 90% of the time.

We discussed the California Congresswoman who declared she wished a certain segment of Americans would just simply die because they had a different opinion than her.

We could go on and on but you get the idea: we are currently being served by the worst set of American politicians in the history of the country. They waste taxpayer money, they never resolve any issue, and they would rather divide America along racial, economic, or other lines just to serve their selfish and greedy political purposes.

So today, since I have had to put up with their jibber jabber for far too long, they get to put up with my ranting and raving today, in no particular order:

I am sick and tired of politicians receiving about $3 TRILLION a year in taxpayer wealth but never making a bit of positive difference in most Americans’ lives.

I am sick and tired of of politicians’ inability to resolve any major issue facing the country over the past four decades including failing public schools, a lost war on drugs, leaky borders, skyrocketing healthcare costs, the lack of a national energy policy, etc.

I am sick and tired of being deliberately lied to by politicians, whether it is being told you can keep your current doctors, hospitals, and health plans under Obama Care to we are pulling our troops out of Iraq because Iraq is now a safe, secure and stable democracy to we are finally going to get wasteful Federal spending under control, and dozens of other lies.

I am sick and tired of politicians who place their personal enrichment and constant reelection needs ahead of the needs of the country and the citizens they are supposed to be serving.

I am sick and tired of how the political class has hijacked and corrupted our political processes, reducing the power of ordinary citizens to ashes as a result of the big money unions, PACS, corporations, and wealthy in this country.

I am sick and tired of Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, food assistance and other Federal government programs wasting or losing to criminal fraud over $200 billion of taxpayer wealth every year.

I am sick and tired of being poorly served by a Federal government bureaucracy that looks and performs like the Jabba The Hutt Star Wars character, a large, bloated, ugly, formless creature that consumes resources in a tyrannical way without providing any redeemable societal benefit.

I am sick and tired of the Federal government and the politicians that operate it treating us as the enemy, spying on our electronics communications without warrants, groping our physical bodies at airport gates, randomly frisking us on the streets without warrants, confiscating our land and property without just cause, and basically viewing us as subservient to the Federal bureaucracy.

I am sick and tired of the IRS being used as a political Gestapo-like organization to harass those that have a different opinion of the current administration, crushing citizens’ First Amendment rights in the process.

I am sick and tired of the reality that IRS employees like Lois Lerner and those within the IRS that illegally destroyed documents, computer hard drives, and emails are not in jail for their law breaking.

I am sick and tired of being called a racist for simply having a different opinion on an issue than the opinion and policies of the first African-American President.

I am sick and tired of a Presidential administration that simply declines to acknowledge that Islamic terrorism exists in this world, and apparently in this country, given the Fort Hood massacre, the Boston Marathon massacre, and the recent U.S. Marine massacre in Tennessee.

I am sick and tired of politicians that are just plain stupid, so stupid that one from Georgia thinks that a Pacific island is capable of tipping over and one in Congress from Texas who thinks that the Constitution is 400 years old and who also wondered out loud a number of years ago if an unmanned Mars probe would be going close to where Neil Armstrong walked on the moon.

I am sick and tired of a Presidential administration that sends government officials to the funerals of some people but ignores the funerals of other, just as worthy Americans such as soldiers and a general killed defending this country, a good Samaritan American who was beheaded by ISIS terrorists, an innocent California young lady murdered by an illegal alien, and the soldiers who died looking for an Army deserter in Afghanistan whose parents were subsequently hosted in the White House.

I am sick and tired of a President who has set the all time record for attending political fundraising events, well over 700 so far, and who has golfed more times than any other President in the past six decades, well over 200 rounds of golf.

I am sick and tired of a President who would rather blame other people and other conditions (Bush, the Japanese tsunami, ATM machines, Republicans, etc.) for his lack of success than own up to his mistakes, correct them, and actually be a leader.

I am sick and tired of a political class that wants to dictate what we eat, where we smoke, what we can carry on us when we travel, what flag we can fly, how much we pay employees, what kind of cars we drive, and the tens of thousands of government regulations that kill freedom and liberty in this country every day.

I am sick and tired of being deemed a beneficiary of “white privilege” since my grandparents were poor immigrants from overseas, arriving long after the Civil War ended, my parents had only high school educations but saved enough via their blue collar jobs to put my sister and myself through college, all the while never accepting a government check of any kind.

I am sick and tired of some people fixating on and freaking out on a flag, a piece of cloth, rather than focusing on what needs to be fixed in America’s cities and aid to America’s poor: failing public schools, lack of job opportunities, high crime rates, high drug addiction rates, corrupt urban political machines and politicians, etc.

I am sick and tired of small subsegments of the population yelling that it is not enough for me to respect their life choices but I have to respect their choices in the manner they dictate and possibly sacrifice my freedoms and ideals in order to not offend them.

I am sick and tired of a President who promised to operate the most transparent Presidency ever but has gone about stifling all legal and binding requests for government information and documents, often illegally destroying government records to prevent their disclosure and who has harassed and impeded the work of journalists.

I am sick and tired of politicians that regularly break Federal laws but who never suffer any repercussions from their lawbreaking.

I am sick and tired of politicians that leave office much wealthier than when they entered political office.

That feels better, a good rant. For two other good rants, let me refer you to the following video clips:

The first video clip is a recent rant by a news person who has also had enough of the lies and behavior of this President, in light of the recent terrorist killings of our armed forces personnel in Tennessee:

http://redrocktribune.com/boom-tv-hosts-epic-takedown-of-obama-over-islam-is-best-2-minutes-ever/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook

The second video clip is an old one but a classic rant from the movie, “Network:”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WINDtlPXmmE

The sad thing about this rant is that the problems he talks about thirty some years ago, the Russians, the economy, crime, etc. are still problems today, unresolved by the political class. The good thing about the rant is that he has two pieces of good advice that are just as relevant today:

“You’ve got to get mad.”

“I’m mad as hell and I am not going to take this anymore.”

Could not have said it better myself. If you are also sick and tired of the performance of America's poltiical class, than isn’t about time you got mad as hell and stopped taking it? What are you going to do about it? If you do nothing, than thirty some years from today we will still be talking about the Russians, the bad economy, crime….

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

Thursday, July 23, 2015

July, 2015, Bonus Post, By The Numbers: Illegal Immigrant Numbers and How Large They Actually Are

On a semi-regular basis we revisit the theme "by the numbers" just to check in on the state of the country and political class using actual realities and their underlying numbers, not the spin or lies from our politicians. You see, politicians usually have nothing to gain by looking at reality and the numbers since they are more than likely to have screwed up reality and our lives in the first place.

That is why they would rather lie and deceive than tell the truth. But that approach can be destroyed by looking at the hard numbers behind the mess they have created. I once worked for a boss whose favorite saying was: "There is nothing more devastating to an opinion than the right number.” And that is what we try to do with this theme, devastate politicians’ opinions by looking at the right numbers.

So let’s take a look at the numbers that have recently cropped up and again prove that the political class in America continues to be one of the worst set of people to ever hold office, given the state of the country, the many ways they screw up our wealth and government functions, and their inability or non-desire to step up and tell the truth.

Today's bonus post has ended up focusing mostly on illegal immigrant numbers, not on purpose but because those numbers have recently cropped up in the news.

1) Wind power has been around for hundreds of years so calling it a “new technology” is really quite a stretch. But many in the political class have done just that in order to justify giving the wind industry billions and billions of taxpayer dollars. What does that generosity look like in the real world:

Over the past thirty years, the wind industry has received $30 billion in in taxpayer subsidies.
Unfortunately, despite getting $30 billion, the wind industry now accounts for a meager 5% of U.S. electricity demand.
Congress passed an extension on wind subsidies in 2014 that will cost taxpayers another $6.4 billion over the next decade.
In 2003, U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley, a primary sponsor of Federal wind subsidies, stated that the wind industry would need “maybe 10 years” more of subsidies.
Thirteen years later, the Washington politicians are willing to give the wind industry another ten years, making it twelve years beyond what Grassley promised in 2003.
After hundreds of years and tens of billions of dollars, maybe we should finally face the reality that wind power will never be the energy savior that many wanted it to be. The numbers, both financial and chronological, all point to that reality.

2) The IRS recently reported, as told in a recent edition of BusinessWeek, that it hung up on 8.8 million calls into its 800# help centers during 2014. This comes out to an average daily hang up rate of over 24,000 calls a DAY. Since I would assume that the majority of these calls came in the months leading up to tax filing day on April 15, I think we can safely assume that the hang up rate during those months was much, much higher than 24,000 a day.

Horrendous customer service even for this dysfunctional Federal entity. But possibly even worse than these pathetic metrics, the IRS calls these hang ups “courtesy disconnects.” Not even close. Nothing courteous about calling a Federal government hotline for help, probably waiting on hold for a long time, and then being hung up on. Certainly disrespectful to the taxpayer callers who pay the salaries of all IRS employees.

3) Paul Bedard, writing for the Washington Examiner on July 20, 2015, reported on estimates from from the Center for Immigration Studies and Pew Research that showed 2.5 million illegal immigrants entered the U.S. during the Obama Presidency, about 400,000 a year, more than a thousand a DAY.

The only good news out of the study is that the annual flow into this country during the Bush administration years was probably in the 500,000 to 600,000 range, making the Obama administration king of the pigs when it comes to leaky borders. The only difference is that during the Bush administration, ISIS did not exist. During the Obama administration, ISIS does exist, is financially very well off, and would probably have little trouble sneaking its terrorists into this country via the leaky Mexican/U.S. border.

It is pretty clear, based on these numbers that both administrations have been absolute failures in securing our borders and protecting U.S.citizens from physical and financial harm.

4) The organization, Judicial Watch, does a wonderful job in prying documents out of the Federal government despite the Obama administration’s tendency to want to work in secrecy and non-transparency, often illegally or immorally. They recently obtained Federal immigration records that showed:

The Department of Homeland security released over 250 illegal immigrants Arizona area detention centers during just the last week of February, 2015 and the first two weeks of March.
The details in these documents show that the Obama administration lied again when it denied that mass releases of illegals had occurred.
40 of those released have a history of violent criminal behavior but yet were still released onto the streets of Arizona and around the country.
Their criminal offenses included assault, domestic violence, weapons offenses, battery, and drunk driving: Drug Trafficking: 9 cases, Weapons Offense: 6 cases, Domestic Violence: 4 cases, Prostitution: 4 cases, Battery: 2 cases, Contributing to Delinquency of Minor: 2 cases, Robbery-Street Gun: 2 cases, Firing Weapon: 1 cases, Hit and Run: 1 case, Possession of a Weapon: 1 case, and dozens and dozens of lesser offenses.
And these are just the crimes we know these people committed, the real number is probaly much higher.
Despite the dozens of criminals who were freed, the Federal government has refused to tell local law enforcement authorities the names and locations of these criminals, making local law enforcement departments less capable of doing their jobs and protecting the public.
These findings go along with a 2014 Judicial Watch finding that showed the Obama administration had released a whopping 165,900 known criminal illegal immigrants onto the streets of America. including many convicted of such violent crimes as homicide, sexual assault, kidnapping, and aggravated assault.

As these numbers show, the Obama administration has done a pathetic job of following existing laws and protecting the American public from immigrant criminals, the numbers are too large to claim other wise.

5) What happens once these criminal illegal immigrants are released onto our streets? According to Maricopa County, AZ Sheriff Joe Arpaio, out of the 5,000 illegal immigrants turned over to the Federal government out of his jails, “2,000 have been coming back:” “I have ICE agents in our jail. We check everybody that comes in, then detainers are placed for those here illegally on state charges, turn them over to ICE, and guess what? Out of 5,000, 2,000 have been coming back to my jails, all serious types of crime. One guy came back 20 times. So, evidently they keep crossing the border, or the ICE is letting them out on the streets.”

That will definitely do it for this month’s “by the numbers” review with today’s bonus post focusing on illegal immigrants. As the number of crimes committed by illegals on our streets increases, many of whom were put there by the Obama administration, the question of why Donald Trump has seen his rating climb becomes clear: the number of crimes committed by these known criminals is on the rise and it is the fault of this current administration, the numbers do not lie.

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, July 22, 2015

July, 2015, Part 4, By The Numbers: A Hopeful Set Of Numbers Vs. Politician Induced Numbers

On a semi-regular basis, and for the past three days, we have revisited the theme "by the numbers" just to check in on the state of the country and political class using actual realities and their underlying numbers, not the spin or lies from our politicians. You see, politicians usually have nothing to gain by looking at reality and the numbers since they are more than likely to have screwed up reality and our lives in the first place.

That is why they would rather lie and deceive than tell the truth. But that approach can be destroyed by looking at the hard numbers behind the mess they have created. I once worked for a boss whose favorite saying was: "There is nothing more devastating to an opinion than the right number.” And that is what we try to do with this theme, devastate politicians’ opinions by looking at the right numbers.

So for the past three days we have taken a look at the numbers that have recently cropped up and again prove that the political class in America continues to be one of the worst set of people to ever hold office, given the state of the country, the many ways they screw up our wealth and government functions, and their inability or non-desire to step up and tell the truth.

Today, we will take a slightly different look with a set of good numbers that show good things and good numbers can happen when the government and the American political class are NOT involved in our lives. But before we do that, let’s look at just a very small set of examples of financial mismanagement of the American political class that we have previously discussed in this blog and why the less money given to politicians, the more good society reaps:

Through mismanagement and outright criminal fraud, the Federal government wastes or is cheated out of about $200 billion a year via the Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid programs.
The IRS sent over 600 bogus tax refunds to the same mailing address...in Ireland.
The U.S. Navy spent about $300 million to build two Navy ships almost to completion and then spent another $10 billion of taxpayer money to dismantle the ships before they were ever used.
The Clinton State Department spent $40 million to build a U.S. consulate in the hinterlands of Afghanistan and then abandoned the project when they realized it could not be defended against a terrorist attack.
The Obama Care process was recently shown to be giving out billions of dollars in tax subsidies that were not deserved.

We could go on for a very long time with other examples of mismanagement by the political class and the government functions they operate but you get the idea. For other examples of such nonsense, just review any of our political class insanity posts that start off each month or enter the search phrase, “why no American” should pay another penny in taxes in the search box above.

Okay, we go through that set up to review a recent Forbes article that listed out which 24 people/married couples had given the most to charities in 2014. The article was based on a list compiled by the Chronicle of Philanthropy.

Bill and Melinda Gates donated the most to charity in 2014, in excess of $1.5 billion. While worth $78.7 billion, according to Forbes‘ calculations, the Gates and Warren Buffett formed the Giving Pledge in 2010, inviting other philanthropists to join them in promising to give away more than half of their fortunes during their lifetimes. So far, 128 people have joined the pledge. I would assume that some of those 128 people are also included on this 2014 Forbes list:

1. Bill Gates, At least $1.5 billion, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Trust

2. Ralph C. Wilson Jr. (deceased), $1 billion (bequest), Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation

3. Ted Stanley, $652.4 million, Broad Institute and other groups

4. Jan Koum, $556 million, Silicon Valley Community Foundation

5. Sean Parker, $550 million, Sean N. Parker Foundation and Sean Parker Foundation Donor Advised Fund at Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund

6. Nicholas and Jill Woodman, $500 million, Silicon Valley Community Foundation

7. Michael Bloomberg, $462 million, Arts, education, environment, and public-health groups, and programs aimed at improving city governments around the world

8. Rachel Lambert (Bunny) Mellon (deceased), $411.3 million (bequest), Gerard B. Lambert Foundation and other groups

9. Sergey Brin, $382.8 million, Brin Wojcicki Foundation

10. Paul Allen, $298 million, Paul G. Allen Family Foundation; Allen Institute for Cell Science

11. John and Laura Arnold, $218.4 million, Laura and John Arnold Foundation and other groups

12. Pam and Pierre Omidyar, $180 million, Omidyar Network, Humanity United, Ulupono Initiative, HopeLab, and other groups

13. Larry Page, $177.3 million, Carl Victor Page Memorial Foundation

14. Marc and Lynne Benioff, $154 million, University of California at San Francisco Benioff Children’s Hospital and other groups

15.T. Denny Sanford, $150.5 million, Sanford Health Foundation, South Dakota Community Foundation and other groups

16. Kenneth Griffin, $150 million, Harvard University

17. Ernest and Evelyn Rady, $121 million, Rady Children’s Hospital of San Diego, University of California at San Diego, Rady School of Management

18. Sidney and Caroline Kimmel, $115.5 million, Sidney Kimmel Foundation

19. Connie and Steve Ballmer, $110 million, Harvard University, University of Oregon

20. Fred Eshelman, $103 million, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Eshelman School of Pharmacy

21. Gert Boyle (tie), $102 million, Oregon Health & Science University Foundation

21. John P. and Tashia Morgridge (tie), $102 million, University of Wisconsin at Madison, Wisconsin Technology Initiative and other groups

23. Irwin and Joan Jacobs, $101.6 million, Joan and Irwin Jacobs Fund at the Jewish Community Foundation of San Diego, University of California at San Diego Jacobs Medical Center, High Tech High Foundation and other groups

24. Herb Kohl (tie), $100 million, Greater Milwaukee Foundation

24. Dennis and Carol Troesh (tie), $100 million, Loma Linda University Health

Just these 24 top donors gave out over $8 billion to charities, universities, and worthy humanity causes in a single year. Now, ask yourself: would you rather tax these people more and have those additional taxes get into the hands of Washington politicians who have proven that they cannot run efficient social programs, that they build unnecessary Navy ships and consulate buildings, that they fraudulently send taxpayer wealth to Ireland and who knows what other locations around the world, and waste our wealth and tax dollars in thousands of other ways or would you rather keep tax rates the same, or lower, so that Americans can contribute more and directly to the humanity causes they want to support?

The numbers make this choice a no brainer. Direct contributions directly to needy causes as we see above are far more effective than general tax contributions to the Federal government bureaucracy that shows no ability to spend efficiently or effectively.

That will do it for this month’s “by the numbers” update. Hopefully, the good numbers of today offset the depressing set of numbers from the previous three 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:

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

July, 2015, Part 3, By The Numbers: More Depressing Economic Numbers, Courtesy of The Washington Political Class

The past two days we looked at the depressing economic numbers from two different perspectives:

Two days ago we reviewed the hardcore numbers on the economy from the 45 million Americans that are still receiving monthly food assistance to the 640,000 Americans who dropped out of the work force last month.
Yesterday we looked at the economic attitude numbers which showed that Americans are getting less optimistic about the economy, as measured by the University Of Michigan's consumer sentiment index.

Today we will take a deeper look at the economic attitude numbers as measured by a recent Harris poll and analyses from the American Institute of CPAs. The original source of the following information came from the Affluent Investor website:

A record 72% of Americans fear a near term economic crash.
While the stock market has tripled since the lows in 2009 and the Great Recession, much of America is not feeling that wealth effect.
This has resulted in many, many American families putting their lives on hold.
More than 50% of Americans have delayed a major life decision in the past 12 months for financial reasons.
This is up twenty percentage points from a similar survey that was done in 2007.
24% delayed a higher education decision due to financial reasons, up from 11% in 2007.
22% delayed buying a home due to financial reasons, up from 14% in 2007.
19% delayed a medical decision due to financial reasons, despite Obama Care, up from 9% in 2007.
18% delayed retirement due to financial reasons, up from 9% in 2007.
13% delayed having children due to financial reasons, up from 5% in 2007.
12% delayed getting married due to financial decisions, up from 6% in 2007.

Thus, in just eight years, despite after five years of "economic recovery," Americans are having to make hard decisions regarding life altering situations, delaying major milestones in their life due to financial concerns and limitations. Hardly the numbers and the sign of a robust economic recovery. In some cases, the amount of negativity has more than doubled in just eight years.

One underlying set of numbers that may be driving the negativity and confidence crisis is the reality that Americans are still carrying $60 TRILLION in debt. While credit card debt overall is slightly down over time, student loan debt continues to mount, offsetting the drop in credit card debt. Massive student debt forces college graduates to postpone their life's objectives and purchasing habits just to pay off the crushing debt load.

The numbers do not lie. Whether we are looking at hard statistic information or soft attitude information, the numbers are trending negatively. Despite the fact that with an $800 billion economic stimulus package, an energy revolution that created high paying jobs and dropped energy prices, and several TRILLION dollars of paper money pumped into the economy by the Fed, the Washington political class still could not generate a robust economic recovery or economic growth record. The numbers do not lie.

Final "by the numbers" episode tomorrow, a post that will actually concentrate on positive numbers, which, not surprisingly, have nothing to do with politicians or their inane actions.

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:

Love My Country, Loathe My Government

Friday, July 24, 2015

I Am Sick and Tired of [fill in the blank]

Thursday, July 23, 2015

July, 2015, Bonus Post, By The Numbers: Illegal Immigrant Numbers and How Large They Actually Are

Wednesday, July 22, 2015

July, 2015, Part 4, By The Numbers: A Hopeful Set Of Numbers Vs. Politician Induced Numbers

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

July, 2015, Part 3, By The Numbers: More Depressing Economic Numbers, Courtesy of The Washington Political Class

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