It is the beginning of another month which means it is again time to review the latest political class insanity from Washington and around the world. Political class insanity takes many forms including the wasting of taxpayer wealth, criminal fraud within government programs, inane and stupid political quotes and actions, the inability to create and implement effective and efficient government programs, stupid and ill performing economic policies and strategies, and other forms of insanity that continue to evolve and surprise and shock us.
Today and for all of the insanity posts this month, let’s start off with a welcome piece of honest political dialog. It comes from a State Department spokesperson. Mark Toner, who is about to start the daily State Department press briefing. In a joking matter, he makes the following quote: "Welcome to the State Department. I think we have some interns in the back. Welcome. Good to see you in this exercise in transparency and democracy."
He then burst out laughing at his own quote, indicating he also knew what a joke the Obama administration has been, especially Mr. Toner’s State Department, when it comes to cover ups, lack of transparency, denial of Freedom of Information Act requests, the prosecution of whistleblowers, etc. But at least it was a little refreshing to finally hear some actual honesty out of Washington as we see from the actual clip of the news conference:
With that context of honesty, let’s see what other insanity has been going down:
1)Unfortunately, even though we may think that we live in a free country, the government controls a lot of our lives and there is little we can do about it. The government controls our retirement income via Social Security, they control our retirement health care via Medicare, they tax us well into the spring when you consider all of the taxes we have to pay at all levels of government, with Obama Care they control a huge chunk of the country’s pre-retirement health care, etc., etc. One would think that only by dying would we escape the clutches of the government and the politicians that operate it.
If that is what you think, then at least in Connecticut you might be wrong, death does not get you out of the clutches of the government. According to Onan Coca, writing for the www.constitution.com website, a politician in Connecticut wants the state government to take charge of your vital organs when you die and apportion them out to transplants candidates:
- Senate Bill 750 in the Connecticut senate would amend “the general statutes… to adopt an opt-out policy on organ donation that enables all state residents to become organ donors upon their deaths unless they join an official registry to opt out of organ donation.”
- In other words, if you were to die in Connecticut, the state would own your entire body unless you actively opted out of such an arrangement before you died.
- If you did not opt out, the state wins your body parts even if your relatives and family disagree and the option to delay such confiscation of said body parts would probably not exist since the body parts would have to be used and transplanted almost immediately to be any good.
- Imagine the grief and agony a family would be put through if the deceased never got around to opting out, or more likely, the government bureaucrats screw up the registry like government bureaucrats screw up everything else they touch.
- Also, how effective would the state be in notifying people about the reality that they do not own their own body parts once they die, there is little incentive for the state for the state to have a lot of people opt out, it defeats the whole stupid idea in the first place.
- A lot of people see this power grab as it truly is including Connecticut Republican state Senator Joe Markley got it right when he observed that “It’s a bill that would seem to indicate that the state owns your body unless you say otherwise.”
- ONe out of state resident in New Hampshire also correctly summarized why this is such a bad piece of legislation in a letter to the New Hampshire Register newspaper: “This proposal opens doors that our government should not be walking through. SB 750 forces all Connecticut residents to become organ donors upon their deaths unless, per the synopsis of the bill, “they join an official registry to opt out of organ donation. Senator Kennedy’s proposal presents three entirely unacceptable conditions for Connecticut residents: 1) It insinuates that after our death, our bodies are by default the property of the state unless we have previously “opted out”; 2) it forces us to trust a state bureaucracy to manage this opt-out registry accurately and safely; and 3) it flies in the face of our nation’s founding principles and the civil liberties that protect all of us.
This is not to say that organ donations is not a good thing. But in a free country, that should be a personal and family decision, voluntarily done, not mandated by the political class and government bureaucrats.
2) Let’ stay in Connecticut since there appears to be a lot of political class insanity up there now. According to John Lott, writing for the Hartford Courant:
- The state government in Connecticut currently charges $140 in initial fees if a resident wants a handgun permit.
- This is currently twice the national average.
- Now, the governor wants to more than double that $140 to $370 and require a renewal fee every five years.
- That proposed initial fee would be about 50% higher than California’s fee which is currently the highest in the country.
- But doing so would hurt the very people that liberal Democrats like the current governor always think they are advocates for, the poorer folks in society.
- Because ask yourself this: who is more likely to require a legal handgun for protection: less wealthy people who are likely living in an area with a higher crime rate but who less likely to be able to afford the new, higher fees or wealthier people who are likely living in an area with a lower crime rate but who are more likely to be able to afford the new, higher fees?
- Because let’s be honest, criminals are not going to be affected by the higher fees since they are criminals and will not be registering themselves or their guns, all this does is make less wealthy state residents less likely to protect themselves.
- The Democratic governor claims that the increase in the fee structure will help offset the state’s $3.6 billion deficit over a two year period the increase in fees is only expected to generate $9 million annually, covering only a measly .5% of the $3.6 billion deficit.
- And that assumes that demand for permits does not fall off once the fees are more than doubled, a highly unlikely economic outcome,meaning that the .5% offset to the budget deficit is even smaller.
Idiotic economic and criminal mind thinking from the state’s political class.
3) I do not quite know what to make of this latest insanity because I am not sure the subject is kidding all not. If she is not kidding, and there is no evidence that she was kidding, then this future politician, Chelsea Clinton, has already crossed over into the political class insanity realm.
Apparently some gentleman named Andrew Lofholm sent out the following, obviously Photoshopped picture of Lincoln wearing a Donald Trump hat via Twitter announcing a meeting of the local Republican club:
The cover of the 2017 Lincoln Day Dinner program for Republican Party of Palm Beach County tonight at Mar-a-Lago.
Chelsea Clinton responded with the following tweet:
✔@ChelseaClinton
Please tell me this is photoshopped. Please? https://twitter.com/andrewlofholm/status/845386461524512768 …
Is she that ignorant? If so, she should make a great politician, fitting in great with the clowns we have to deal with today in Washington and state capitals across the country.
That will do it for today's insanity: Chelsea Clinton looking totally out of touch with reality, a Connecticut political class that is denying less wealthy residents the ability to defend themselves via the Second Amendment, and a government play, also in Connecticut, to not only control your life and freedom while you are alive but also when you die.
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