February, 2019, Part 6, Political Class Insanity: Medieval Disease In LA,Yet Another California Tax, and 1000+ Obama Failures

It is 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.

Let’s get started:

1) One of the basic functions of any government entity is to protect the citizens it represents. Whether it is police protection, armed forces protection, or public health protection, that is a very basic government function. Unfortunately, according to a recent Daily Wire website article by Emily Zanotti, the city government of Los Angeles is failing miserably when it comes to this basic function:

• The city is suffering through a break out of typhus disease, a malady usually associated with the Middle Ages and also homeless populations.
• This should not be a surprise since the local politicians have governed in such a horrific way that the homeless population in that city has exploded over the past few years.
• Typhus is carried by fleas and flea feces.
• 57 cases have been reported just in downtown Los Angeles and 120 total cases within city limits.
• This is up from 6 cases reported over the summer with all six cases associated with homeless folks.
• Latter cases have not been confined just to the homeless population but for some reason have started to show up among city employees.
• According to Deputy City Attorney Liz Greenwood, who came down with typhus: "It felt like somebody was driving railroad stakes through my eyes and out the back of my neck. Who gets typhus? It's a medieval disease that's caused by trash."
• She suspects that she got the disease from rats that infest city buildings:"There are rats in City Hall and City Hall East. There are enormous rats and their tails are as long as their bodies."
• While the city has tried to collect more garbage more often, breeding grounds for fleas, obviously it is not enough as the number of cases increases.
• According to the LA Times: "People in Koreatown step outside their fancy condos to find tents, rotting food and human feces at their doorsteps. Buses and trains have become de facto shelters, and thousands of people sleep in fear and degradation."
• Despite this efforts, local news organizations have continued to report on and photograph piles of trash on the city’s streets.

But these efforts miss the real point, the root cause of the outbreak: homelessness. Whether it is through bad housing policies and laws, bad education policies and results, minimum wage nonsense, high taxes, etc., city politicians have managed to increase the number of homeless people by 75% since 2013, to a total of 55,000 people just in LA proper. It does not include another 55,000 in abutting communities. These thousands and thousands of homeless folks are living in 222 so-called encampments.

And these conditions exist and have grown so dramatically in the midst of an outstanding economy. Can you imagine what will happen when the economy dips into a recession? How many more people will get sick from typhus and other diseases that arise in the the homeless population? 

And rather than attack the root causes of homelessness that caused the outbreak, the city politicians focus on cleaning up the trash, a task they are not even up to doing well. Thus, as far as protecting citizens, a basic function of government and politicians, the city leaders of LA have failed miserably.

2) Let’s stay in California for the next piece of insanity. California is in pretty bad shape. Its infrastructure is crumbling, its schools stink, it has untold billions and billions of unfunded pension obligations, it has a wicked homelessness problem throughout the state, high taxes, a growing out migration problem, and other problems. 

Instead of focusing on these major problems, the newly elected governor did what most state politicians have done over time: introduced a new tax. New Governor Gavin Newsom has proposed that the state levy a brand new tax, this one on drinking water. He claims that such a tax would allow poor people to get access to safe and affordable water.

According to his official budget the tax would create a “safe and affordable drinking water fund,” to “enable the State Water Resources Control Board to assist communities, particularly disadvantaged communities, in paying for the short-term and long-term costs of obtaining access to safe and affordable drinking water,” SFgate.com reported.

The funny thing is that the organizations most likely to benefit from the water tax revenue, the Association of California Water Agencies, which represents more than 400 water suppliers across the state, thinks that the water tax is a stupid idea, calling it “highly problematic.” Seems like there is a disconnect between the governor and the agencies, which raises a question: is the water tax really for drinking water or will it eventually be channeled to another, unrelated purpose? 

The governor campaigned with a platform that included providing medical care to all illegal immigrants living in the state. Just saying, it would not be the first time that a politician did a bait and switch. Just another reason why even more taxpaying citizens will be living the state: another tax, a tax on drinking water, what is next: a tax breathing, a tax on walking, in California it appears nothing is off the table when it comes to taxes.

Side Note: according to California’s Legislative Analyst’s Office, the state lost over one million citizens over the past decade.

3) Okay, let’s get out of California and do a look back to the Obama administration and reminisce a little. Someone went to the trouble of compiling over 1,000 lies and law breaking actions that incurred during the Obama years by his administration. Yes, over a 1,000. The website where the compilation is listed can be accessed at:

https://lidblog.com/airing-obama-speech/

Let’s take a walk down memory lane and recall the massive lying and law breaking of Obama via just a small sample from the list of over 1,000:

- Obama led the country to war against Libya, a clear violation of the Constitution and the War powers act and destroying the Libyan society and government and turning it into a terrorist haven.

- He gave a no-bid contract to Haliburton just like Bush did.

- He promised not to appoint lobbyists to his administration and then went and allowed over 40 lobbyists to get administration assignments.

- Despite constantly criticizing Wall Street, he collected more in campaign contributions from Wall Street types than any politician over at least the past 20 years.

- He promised to close the prison for terrorist at Guantanamo Bay but it is still open, two years after he left office.

- He supported the bailout of banks while a Senator via the support of the TARP program.

- He waged the biggest government effort again medical marijuana once in office even though he campaigned in support of medical marijuana.

- He nominated a tax evader to run the Treasury Department, Timothy Geithner.

- He almost doubled the national debt even though he promised to go through the entire Federal budget line by line and get rid of useless and wasteful spending.

- He supported the indefinite detention of U.S. citizens by signing legislation to do so.

- He supported widespread, warrantless snooping on Americans.

- He ordered the killing of four American citizens without due process.

- He operated the illegal Fast and Furious operation that allowed guns to fall into the hands of drug cartels, resulting the deaths of at least dozens of Mexican citizens and one U.S.Border Patrol officer from the use of those guns.

- He lied about putting healthcare negotiations on C-SPAN.

- He lied about putting pending legislation on the Internet for national review before signing it.

- He lied about Obama Care allowing Americans to keep their current doctors, hospitals, and insurance plans.

- He illegally changed parts of the Obama Care law after it was passed.

- He illegally moved a financial donor and backer ahead of the American taxpayer in the Solyndra bankruptcy case.

- Falsely claimed that the Supreme Court had never overturned any law that had been passed by Congress.

- He illegally demanded money to fulfill Freedom of Information Act requests.

We could go on and on but you get the idea: looking back, as this website did, it is pretty clear that Obama and his administration was one of the most unlawful. lying, and dishonest administrations of all time beside being one of the least productive of all time also. Again, go the linked website above to read the 1000+ insults to come out of the Obama era.

That will do it for today’s insanity: medieval disease in LA, another tax in California, and the 1000+ plus failures of Obama. More insanity to follow.

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www.loathemygovernment.com

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http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w