September, 2016, Part 7, Political Class Insanity: Giving Away Taxpayer Money To Stupid Causes, Another Delusionsal Politician, and More

It is the beginning of another month which means it is again time to review the latest political class insanity from Washington and around the world. Political class insanity takes many forms including the wasting of taxpayer wealth, criminal fraud within government programs, inane and stupid political quotes and actions, the inability to create and implement effective and efficient government programs, stupid and ill performing economic policies and strategies, and other forms of insanity that continue to evolve and surprise and shock us.

The current monthly record for the number of days needed to cover one month's worth of insanity is ten. We almost equaled that record last month when we needed nine days to cover one month’s worth of political class insanity. There is a very good chance that the ten day record could fall this month since as we get closer and closer to the election, the volume of ineptness grows almost exponentially. 

But today and for all of the 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) A few years ago it seemed we could not write fast enough to discuss the many solar energy companies Obama was giving taxpayer dollars out to, all of which eventually or suddenly went bankrupt. At last count, if memory serves me correctly, almost $40 billion had been flushed with no societal benefit in return.

But it has been all quiet on that front recently. I assumed that Obama had simply run out of money to waste. But the Daily Caller website recently recounted how badly that taxpayer wealth was invested. Chris White, writing for the website on August 12, 2016, pointed out that one of the solar energy companies that the Obama administration had backed was “hopelessly insolvent.” Details of this latest alternative energy disaster includes:

• SunEdison recently declared bankruptcy since its liabilities are at least $1 billion greater than its assets.
• It was the judge overseeing the bankruptcy, Judge Stuart Bernstein, who called the company “hopelessly insolvent.”
• Things are so bad that the judge said that shareholders of the company will see no value coming back to them since you cannot “create value where it does not exist.”
• The company has debts that could be as high as $1 to $2.5 billion larger than its assets.
• Its stock price has dropped an amazing 95% in just the past year as confidence in the company waned.
• At one point in time the company was valued at $10 billion but is valued at less than $500 million now.
• The Washington political class has given the company almost $650 million in direct Federal subsidies and tax credits since 2000.
• Even though the company was crashing, the Obama administration gave it another $4.6 million in 2015, an investment that is obviously lost.

Not a single alternative energy company that received taxpayer subsidies from the Obama administration seems to have survived, a record of futility that is insane. Solyndra, A123, and dozens of others took taxpayer wealth, usually because they were political cronies of the Democratic Party, and gave back no benefit to the economy society.

2) Most politicians are very bad at doing just about everything including making predictions. But one foreign politician got at least one prediction very right back in 2007. 

Back in February, 2007, when Obama was campaigning for President, before he took office, Australian Prime Minister at that time, John Howard, predicted if Obama became President, Iraq and the Middle East would descend into chaos and become the mess it is today: “I think that would just encourage those who wanted completely to destabilize and destroy Iraq, and create chaos and victory for the terrorists to hang on and hope for (an) Obama victory...If I was running Al Qaeda in Iraq, I would … pray, as many times as possible, for a victory not only for Obama, but also for the Democrats. And, if America is defeated in Iraq, the hope of ever getting a Palestinian settlement will be gone.” 

Looks like the Prime Minister nailed that forecast. As we all know, with the premature withdrawal of American troops out of Iraq, a move that was opposed by professional military and diplomatic government experts in order for Obama to have a political talking point, Iraq has been split into three parts, Shiite, Sunni, and Kurdish, with a barely functioning central government. This facilitated the rise of ISIS in neighboring Syria and the spillover of that terror group into Iraq.

ISIS is now the most horrific and richest terrorist group in the history of the world and it is sowing terror and death around the world. The Middle East is in far worse shape than when Obama took office. Seems everyone saw the insanity of withdrawing all U.S. troops, his military advisors, his diplomatic staff, and at least one foreign leader except Obama, a community organizer politician that thought getting a political talking point was more important than preserving peace.

3) Debbie Wasserman is a Florida Democratic Congresswoman who up until the Democratic national convention was chairwoman of their national committee. At that time, the Democrats’ computers got hacked by someone who published a lot of secret party documents, many of which showed that Wasserman was actively working against the Bernie Sanders campaign even though as chairwoman of the national committee she was supposed to stay neutral.

As a result of the nefarious goings on of her and others, as uncovered by the computer hacks, she was forced to resign as a result of Sanders’ supporters relentlessly going after her and blaming her for their candidate’s loss to Clinton. Despite this embarrassment, Wasserman is still in denial as she claims she was never booed while in public at the convention. 

Which gets us to to the perennial question when it comes to politicians misspeaking: are they so out of touch with reality that what say has no basis in reality or do they think we are so stupid that we will not check what they tell us?

Look at the following tape where she is literally heckled and booed off of a stage at a convention meeting and then ask yourself: how can she be that delusion to think she was never booed at the convention:

http://trumpinsurrection.com/archives/3458

Not only does she not think she was heckled and booed off of the stage, listen to her version of what happened: “There were about 300 people at that breakfast, and the overwhelming majority of people in that room were enthusiastic supporters of me and my message.”

Insanely delusional.

4) Let’s finish off today’s insanity with some really stupid government spending. MRCTV recently posted a short video describing this insane waste of money. The Federal government recently awarded Cornell University a $2 million grant to to develop a new hybrid type of broccoli that can be grown on the east coast. 

So many problems with this waste of taxpayer money:

• What is wrong with the broccoli being grown today elsewhere in the country, is there somehow a pressing need to have an east coast grown broccoli crop?
• If there somehow a need, doubtful, why aren’t broccoli farmers paying for this research at Cornell, they are the obvious benefactors of a new breed of broccoli, assuming there are benefits from a new type of broccoli?
• Since I hate the taste of broccoli, regardless of where it is grown, why are some of my taxes being spent to develop a new type of broccoli that I will never, ever even consider eating?

Rather than just read my reasons for this stupidity, consider the following videotape where this insanity is pointed out in a much more effective and entertaining manner:

http://www.mrctv.org/blog/reality-check-feds-just-spent-2m-broccoli-farm

That will do it for today’s insanity: giving taxpayer wealth to to industries that should be using their own money and resources rather than taxpayer resources, another delusional member of Congress, and one politician correctly predicts the future. More insanity tomorrow.

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http://www.reason.com
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w