Sunday, March 17, 2024

March, 2024, Part 4, Political Class Insanity: Honey Pots Rule Washington, Measles Makes a Comeback, Biden's Ukraine Strategy Continues to Fail and more

Every month we devote posts to just general political class insanity that is running rampant through the country. The members of the American political class continue to show that they are incapable of operating any level of government in this country.

Even their best efforts are almost always inefficient and ineffective at resolving any problem facing Americans. They spend a great amount of time not trying to improve the lives of their citizens but continually ensuring their reelection and enriching themselves, their families, and their friends in the process, all at taxpayer expense.

1)We have often made the proposal that a very, very basic tenet of any government entity is to protect the lives and property of those that they govern. Even if politicians and the government they operate accomplish other success, if they fail in this basic tenet then they are a failure.

And this protection takes various forms. And one form is one that could get worse as Biden’s failed immigration policies continue to allow millions of un-vaccinated and unvetted illegal immigrants to enter the country:
  • Chicago has been the final destination of thousands and thousands of unvetted illegal immigrants of all ages.
  • And quite possibly that is the reason why Chicago has been hit with multiple cases of measles.
  • The outbreak, while small, is important enough for the Centers For Disease Control (CDC) to send out expert teams to look into the outbreak.
  • The total number of outbreaks in the city has been eight cases so far.
  • Three of the infected persons were kids staying in the same illegal immigrants shelter in the city.
  • These are the first cases reported in the city since 2019, five years ago, and yet this past month has seen 8 cases break out.
  • The city’s health commissioner, Dr. Olusimbo Ige, expects other cases to arise in the city.
  • But Chicago is not the only place seeing measles cases crop up.
  • In the past month alone, 41 cases have been reported in 16 different states.
  • 41 cases in the past month while only 58 cases were reported for the entire year of 2023.
This may be nothing, this could just be a statistical anomaly and the number of cases will soon reduce to near zero. But it also could be the beginning of something much more deadly, all because Washington and Biden have decided not to secure the border, allowing unvetted and un-vaccinated millions to enter the country, risking the lives of Americans in so many different ways. And thus, a failure at providing the very basic government service of protection.

2)There are millions of Americans in need right now:

  • There are about 600,000 homeless Americans today.
  • Surveys indicate that as many as 17 million Americans are often having difficulty feeding themselves and their families given the high inflation rate of the Biden administration.
  • Millions of Americans are in need of drug addiction help and well over 100,000 will die this year from their addiction.
  • Millions of American families are without health insurance because they cannot afford it and thus, may be endangering the health of themselves and their families.
And yet, Washington via the Biden administration, continues to fail at foreign policy and continues to ship tens of billions of dollars overseas to help the Ukrainians fight the Russians:
  • Biden wants to send yet another $300 million worth of American taxpayer funded weapons to the Ukrainians in the latest military package for the conflict.
  • The $300 million will be used to make and ship Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, rocket ammunition, demolitions munitions and other military supplies.
  • This would unbelievably be the 55th taxpayer funded aid package for the Ukranians.
  • This latest aid package means the American taxpayer has financed almost $40 billion in military aid for the war.
The frustrating part of this wasteful spending of taxpayer wealth is that Biden and his State Department have apparently not even tried to diplomatically end the conflict:
  • Biden has not talked or met with Putin directly.
  • It is believed that in the two years since the war began, Biden’s Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, has met with Russia's foreign ministry exactly one time.
  • Biden has not tried to force at least a truce, if not a peaceful settlement, though the United Nations.
As a result, the American taxpayer gets constantly hit for Ukrainian aid because Biden is a failure in the international affairs arena.

3)One of the basic tenets of our book, “Love My Country, Loathe My Government” was that no American taxpayer money should be spent on any project or program unless it significantly and positively affects the residents of at least five states. With annual spending deficits of trillions of dollars and a national debt of over $34,000,000,000,000, the need for fiscal sanity is imperative before the dollar, the Federal government, and our democracy crash because of the debt load.

If a state needs a road built that will not materially and positively affect any other state, then let that state pay for it. If sending billions of dollars to Ukraine does not materially and positively affect the residents of at least five states then do not do it [Note: obviously this would shut down just about all foreign aid which would be a good thing.]

Washington should be doing far less, i.e. spending far less money, and doing fewer things much better. Right now, they do a lot of things and do them all poorly, ineffectively, and expensively. This five state rule would allow them to focus only on a limited set of important national issues.

But in the meantime, this is how Washington plans to spend your tax dollars:
  • $4 million for a "waterfront walkway" in New Jersey;
  • $3.5 million for "Detroit’s Thanksgiving Parade float maker’s new headquarters";
  • $1.75 million for the Met (The Metropolitan Museum of Art) located in New York City;
  • $1 million for an "environmental justice center" in New York City,
  • $500,000 to be put toward gardens in San Francisco;
  • $1 million to a non-profit organization in Minnesota to "build a coffee shop and a greenhouse for refugees";
  • $1 million in assistance for San Francisco organic dairy farmers;
  • $500,000 in funding for a "cybercrime vehicle" in the Honolulu police department;
  • $1.2 million for "bike path resurfacing in Rhode Island"; and
  • $209,000 for "HVAC replacement for the Charles Town Opera House" in West Virginia."
This is just one way that those in Washington run up a debt load of $34 trillion. If Minnesota wants a coffee shop and greenhouse for refugees, let Minnesota taxpayers pay for it themselves. If San Francisco wants to build gardens, taxpayers in Iowa should not help pay for them.

Another way to look at this insanity is to realize that millions and millions of Americans are homeless, hungry, drug addicted and lack health insurance. And yet, Washington politicians divert taxpayer wealth and money to pay for gardens, coffee shops, bike paths, parade floats and thousands of other stupid programs that accomplish nothing but ignore those in need.

4)Maybe those in Washington spend money on stupid projects and wasteful programs because they have to from a blackmail perspective:

  • Tennessee Congressman, Tim Burchett, recently said some pretty candid and unexpected things about those inhabiting seats of power in Washington.
  • He believes that money is wasted on stupid projects foreign wars, and other wasteful spending efforts because members of Congress are being blackmailed for their sexual escapades.
  • According to Burchett, moneyed interests set up so-called “honey pots” which are women who are paid to seduce members of Congress and sleep with them, knowing that the women’s handlers are documenting the encounters.
  • These documented encounters can then be used for blackmail purposes and to divert taxpayer wealth to seemingly wasteful projects and programs.
  • According to Burchett: “And they protect it and they protect the people that, that do that. And by doing so, you know, the old honey pot — the Russians do that — and I’m sure members of Congress have been caught up. Why in the world would good conservatives vote for crazy stuff like what we’ve been seeing out of Congress? Here’s how it works. You’re visiting, you’re out of the country or out of town or you’re in a motel or at a bar in DC and, whatever you’re into – women, men, whatever — comes up and they’re very attractive and they’re laughing at your jokes. And you’re buying them a drink. Next thing you know, you’re in the motel room with them naked. And next thing you know, you know you’re about to make a key vote. And what happens? Some well-dressed person comes out and whispers in your ear, ‘Hey, man, there’s tapes out on you.’ Or, ‘Were you in a motel room or whatever with whoever?’ And then you’re like, ‘Oh,’ and [they] said, ‘you really ought not be voting for this thing.’”
  • Burchett went on to say that based on his experience at all levels of government, these things are not restricted to Washington, that they happen in state capitals and town halls.
I think most of us thought these things did happen but it was certainly refreshing for someone from the inside of the corruption to actually say it out loud. Our political processes have become so corrupted in this country that this is the type of individuals that handle our money and safety every day, people who cannot keep it in their pants.

That will do it for today: confirmation that honey pots rule the country, politicians cannot help but spend our wealth on stupid projects both domestic and foreign, the Ukraine/Russia war continues to suck down taxpayer money with no end in sight, and measles makes a comeback.

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If you agree that we need to deseat every member of Congress for their lack of success and accomplishment, then please consider going to the following petition link to help the cause:


https://www.change.org/p/deseat-congress-reset-freedom



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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, March 13, 2024

March, 2024, Part 3, Political Class Insanity: Biden's Economic Failures, Biden's Foreign Policy Failures, Hochul's Law and Order Failure, and Oregon's Drug War Failure

 Every month we devote posts to just general political class insanity that is running rampant through the country. The members of the American political class continue to show that they are incapable of operating any level of government in this country. 


Even their best efforts are almost always inefficient and ineffective at resolving any problem facing Americans. They spend a great amount of time not trying to improve the lives of their citizens but continually ensuring their reelection and enriching themselves, their families, and their friends in the process, all at taxpayer expense.


1)We have often made the case that whatever the American political class touches or works on goes down the drain. The objectives are never met and a lot of taxpayer  money is wasted.


Oregon politicians illustrates the point perfectly:


  • A few years ago the state of Oregon basically legalized hard drugs.

  • One can make a strong case that this was the right move from a freedom perspective, that people should be able to put anything they want in their bodies regardless of what the political class deems appropriate.

  • In addition, current drug laws on the books have done nothing to stop the drug addiction plague in the country so why not try another approach.

  • Unfortunately, the Oregon approach was not the right approach.

  • There is a potential new law going through the legislative process that would re-criminalize hard drugs in the state and goes after dealers who peddle their poison close to schools, drug treatment centers, parks, and halfway houses.

  • Two years after the decriminalization law was passed, overdose cases in the state increased 20%.

  • In one single day in March, 2023, 11 people died  from an overdose, a rate of about 4,000 deaths a year.


Nice try but no success. Whatever addiction support the state politicians thought would offset the looser drug laws did not stop the death train of addiction. Just another failed political class effort.


2)A very, very basic role and tenet of any government entity is to protect the lives and property of the citizens they serve. No matter what successes they have elsewhere, the failure to execute this basic government makes their tenure in office a failure.


Given this reality, it is pretty obvious that the political class in New York have failed in this basic government responsibility:


  • New York City’s streets and subways have experienced a significant increase in violent crime in the past few years.

  • For example, city subway crime is up 13% over the past year.

  • Thus, given the failure to control crime and homicides, New York governor, Kathy Hochul, has decided to station National Guard troops in the subways in a desperate last ditch effort to control the rampant crime.

  • She is worried that the crime rate is causing anxiety among commuters and subway riders and which may lead to people not using the subway system.

  • She obviously does not  think  that the NYPD is up to the task of controlling crime in the streets and subways and  is thus, a failure of the city’s political class to rein in the terror of violent crime.


This is obviously a desperation move by desperate politicians and their failure to to execute that basic government tenet,  protecting the lives and property of its citizens. And while this may work to lessen crime, nothing says “we live in a third world country” than basically having armed troops deployed to protect citizens.


3)Washington continues to be unable to control or understand inflation as the latest inflation numbers from the government point out:


  • The inflation rate for January was 3.2%, 60% higher than what the Federal Reserve and the country thinks is appropriate and fair.

  • Prices were up .4% in January over December, an annual rate that would be even higher than 3.2% if maintained.

  • The average cost of a gallon of gas was $3.08, up from $2.39 a gallon on the day Biden was elected, up about 30%.

  • Food prices continue to run more than 20% since Biden took over.

  • Overall inflation is up 17% over the past three years.


And yet Biden still does not get it, that his policies have restricted energy exploration and availability, driving up costs that reverberate through the entire economy. His huge deficit spending budgets are also a main driver of this persistent and damaging inflation. And yet he blames greedy companies and his ridiculous concept of “shrinkflation” for his economic ignorance. And his ignorance makes us poorer everyday.


4)Speaking of failures, Biden also continues to fail miserably when it comes to foreign policy:


  • His answer to the Ukraine/Russian conflict is to just continue spending taxpayer money on weapons for the Ukrainians, he has no diplomatic plan or strategy to actually end the conflict, just continues to feed it with weaponry: he has not met or talked to Putin, he has not forced the United Nations to help in at least a truce process, his secretary of state has met a grand total of one time with the Russian foreign minister, a complete and utter failure.

  • China is likely to invade Taiwan in the not too distant future and Biden has done nothing to diffuse that potential conflict except to ask Congress for more taxpayer money to buy weapons for the Taiwanese government.

  • North Korea continues to build up its nuclear and conventional arms arsenal.

  • The Hamas/Israeli conflict rages on with no successful  effort from the Biden administration to end that conflict, with Biden basically being  ignored by all sides involved.


We live in a much more dangerous world than when Biden came into office in January, 2021 and he and his State Department have  shown absolutely no ability to function and positively influence world events. 


That will do it for today's political class insanity, a litany of failures of American politicians: Biden’s  foreign policy failures, Biden’s economic policy failures, New York’s inability to control urban crime failures, and Oregon’s failure to understand and treat the drug epidemic. Wow, it seems that you could not do any worse even if you tried to be a failure.


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If you agree that we need to deseat every member of Congress for their lack of success and accomplishment, then please consider going to the following petition link to help the cause:


https://www.change.org/p/deseat-congress-reset-freedom



**********************


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:


Friday, March 8, 2024

March, 2024, Part 2, Political Class Insanity: Biden Subsidizes The Rich, Eric Adams Goes "Whoops," A U.S. Senator Gets Further Indictments and Taxing The Rich Is Still Stupid

Every month we devote posts to just general political class insanity that is running rampant through the country. The members of the American political class continue to show that they are incapable of operating any level of government in this country.

Even their best efforts are almost always inefficient and ineffective at resolving any problem facing Americans. They spend a great amount of time not trying to improve the lives of their citizens but continually ensuring their reelection and enriching themselves, their families, and their friends in the process, all at taxpayer expense.

1)According to the latest Bloomberg Billionaires Index, the two wealthiest men in the world are Jeff Bezos ($200 billion) and Elon Musk ($198 billion). These are the types of people that mostly liberal and Democrat politicians love to demonize because of their honestly earned wealth and threaten to tax not just their income but also their wealth, to either pay down the national debt or redistribute to people who did not earn that wealth.

The stupidity and insanity of this hysteria is easily debunked with a little math:
  • The current Federal government national debt is a whopping $34,000,000,000,000.
  • If the Democrats confiscated 10% of their wealth and used it to magically and immediately pay down the national debt it would reduce the national debt by about .12%.
  • Not 12%, not 1.2% but .12%, a pittance.
  • But let’s say they wanted to distribute that money to every citizen in the country, a typical liberal/socialist idea.
  • In that case, every man, woman and child in the country would receive about $121 a year, or about $.33 a day.
Just another example where politicians divide the country to their own benefit, over taxing the wealthy will provide little relief to either the national debt problem or increase the personal wealth of average Americans. But American politicians do not know how to curb spending, the real culprit for the skyrocketing national debt, or to run an economy that enriches everyone based on their talents and efforts. It is so much easier to demonize than to address and fix the real problem.

2)We have often talked about how the sanctimonious and snotty politicians in many liberal states and cities have loudly boasted for years how their city or state are sanctuaries for illegal immigrants. That their cities and states will protect illegal immigrants from the Federal law on immigration, that they are the best and most compassionate.

Along with that reality, we have also discussed the current reality that now that illegal immigrants are flocking to these sanctuary cities and states, these boastful politicians are feeling the heat for their past positions. These illegal immigrants are flooding the streets, the shelters, the hospitals, and the schools of sanctuary cities and states.

This is causing these sanctimonious politicians to spend billions and billions of taxpayers dollars to care for these illegal immigrants.It is causing them to cut services to Americans who are paying the taxes to service these illegal immigrants. And now all of a sudden, those politicians are starting to realize that their boats come with coasts, and those costs are not sitting well with their constituents:
  • New York City mayor, Eric Adams, has been a long time supporter of NYC being a sanctuary city for illegal immigrants.
  • But over the past couple of years, thousands and thousands of illegal immigrants have taken him up on his offer, coming to the city and causing Adams to burn through untold billions of taxpayer wealth to support these illegal immigrants.
  • And now, at a recent town hall meeting, he questioned his own long time position on whether being a sanctuary city is a good thing.
  • He advocated for possibly changing city laws that would in some cases revoke the sanctuary city status of illegal immigrants and allow them to more easily be deported.
  • This obviously is a hypocritical view, given his long term view that all illegal immigrants were welcome in his city.
  • Specifically: "The overwhelming amount of migrants that are here, they want to work; I still don't understand why the federal government's not allowing them to work. They need to have the right to work like all of us that have come to this country had the ability to do so. But those small numbers that are committing crimes, we need to modify the sanctuary city law that if you commit a felony, a violent act, we should be able to turn you over to [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] and have you deported. It is a right to live in this city, and you should not be committing crimes in our city."
  • He actually went so far as to predict that the influx of so many illegal immigrants into his city might actually destroy the city.
It is so easy to be compassionate when there are no costs involved. But as Adams has found out, ignoring Federal immigration laws come with a price, and that price is higher taxes, less government services, and a skyrocketing crime rate, much of which is driven by individual and the presence of South and Central American gang elements who have infested city under the cover of being a sanctuary city.

3)The Biden administration wanted to do two things with recent “green” initiatives: they wanted to fund the placement and cost of installing electric car charging stations around the country, at taxpayer expense, and they wanted to place those charging stations in lower income communities as an economic incentive. That was how the program was sold.

But as with almost all government programs,. The promise of a government project never matches the reality of its implementation:
  • This effort is part of the Inflation Reduction Act, a misnomer of a piece of legislation if there ever was one, an inflation reduction act that substantially increases government deficit spending which in turn increases inflation.
  • The law was specifically designed for “low income” and “non-urban” areas.
  • Just that intention alone shows how stupid the law is, these are the two areas where electric cars are least likely to be and least likely to need charging stations.
  • But these area designations were really just a smokescreen for the Biden administration since they have since classified some of the wealthiest areas in the country as “low income” and “non-urban,” allowing those with money to get tax benefits at the expense of lower and middle class taxpayers.
  • Some of these ”low income areas” that Biden has designated include Martha’s Vineyard, Montauk and Fishers Island in New York.
  • Many of the Martha Vineyard’s homes where these charging stations will be placed sell for over $ 1 million,, some sell for over $2 million and Obama’s estate on the island is valued at $11.7 million and yet Federal taxpayer money will help pay for charging stations on the island.
  • Fishers Island in New York has been the multi-generational vacation homes of rich American families like the Duponts, the Roosevelts, the Rockefellers, and other wealthy families.
  • Montauk is also the home of many, many homes that sell for millions of dollars and yet those residents will reap the benefits of Federal government taxpayer subsidized electric car charging stations.
  • And this waste of Federal taxpayer money is not restricted to the east coast since many wealthy areas around the country will also benefit.
  • For example, Beverly Hills in California, a neighborhood where the average home is probably worth over a million dollars, will get the benefit of the program.
Just another example of a government program that was supposed to do one thing ends up doing something entirely different. And the loser, as always, is the middle class and low income taxpayers whose hard earned wealth goes to subsidize the wealthy and the politically connected.

4)Over the years we have probably pointed out thousands of examples of how corrupt the American political class has become. From their self enrichment schemes, using government information to favorably invest in the stock market, to providing government contracts and taxpayer wealth to themselves, their families, and their political cronies, the corruption seems endless.

But for whatever reason, Washington powers to be have actually decided to prosecute the corruption of one of their own, New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez. Whether they actually decided to have integrity (doubtful) or possibly because his corruption was so bad and obvious that it endangered their get rich schemes, the good Senator seems to get in deeper and deeper from an alleged law breaking perspective:
  • He and his wife recently got hit with an 18 count indictment for obstruction of justice.
  • The charges are tied to bribery accusations relative to the governments of Egypt and Qatar.
  • This comes on the heels of a New Jersey man who recently pleaded guilty to similar charges and has agreed to cooperate with prosecutors relative to Menendez.
  • These new 18 charges follow onto previous criminal charges for conspiracy, bribery, bank fraud, and acting as a foreign agent.
  • When government agents raided his home relative to the alleged crimes, they found hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, far more than his annual Senate salary, along with gold bars, definitely not part of his Senate salary.
  • Despite the overwhelming evidence, he has taken the coward’s way out, actually playing the race card, claiming that because he is Latino, the world is targeting him: “It is not lost on me how quickly some are rushing to judge a Latino and push him out of his seat. I am not going anywhere.”
Keep in mind that these are just criminal charges, he is not guilty until proven guilty in a court of law. But it is interesting that he has been singled out while others in power, Pelosi, Biden, and others are alleged to be maybe just as corrupt but they get to keep their positions, their riches, and stay out of jail. The hypocrisy of the political class knows no bounds.

That will do it for today’s insanity: the Washington political class finally goes after one of its own, Biden subsidizes his rich friends, Adams finally goes “whoops”, and overtaxing the rich still makes no sense.

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If you agree that we need to deseat every member of Congress for their lack of success and accomplishment, then please consider going to the following petition link to help the cause:


https://www.change.org/p/deseat-congress-reset-freedom



**********************


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: