Tuesday, September 15, 2020

September, 2020, Part 8, Political Class Insanity: More "Do As I Say, Not As I Do," Idiocy In San Francisco,and Out Of Touch In Portland

It is the beginning of another month which means it is time again to review the latest political class insanity from the American political class. Each month it takes us multiple posts to cover the wasteful spending, incompetent government organizations and employees, government programs that usually make a problem worse than resolving it, inane and idiotic politician comments, etc.

To review past posts on this insanity and idiocy, just click on the first few posts in each month listed to the right of this page. After reviewing just a handful of these insanity posts we think you will agree that we are currently being served by the worst set of American politicians ever to hold office in our entire history.

1) The coronavirus crisis has been with us for about six months. It required the government to shut down all but essential services to try and control the spread of the virus. At first, I think most ordinary citizens were alright with the shutdowns. They were a challenge and a pain but most were willing to go along with the politicians’ actions to shut down the economy except for the bare essentials.

But as time went on a funny, but not unexpected trend developed: while ordinary citizens were making sacrifices, politicians and government bureaucrats were living by their old hypocritical standard, “do as I say, not as I do:”
  • The Chicago mayor had her favorite hair salon open just for her to get her hair done although the mayor forbade anyone else to open their hair salon to go and get their hair done.
  • The mayor of Beaumont, Texas had her favorite nail salon just for her to get her nails done although the mayor forbade anyone else to open their nail salon or get their nails done.
  • The mayor of New York City had his gym open up only for him to get a workout in although the mayor forbade any other gym to open or anyone else to go work out in a gym.
  • The governor’s husband in Michigan tried to get his boat out on a lake for a boat ride over a holiday weekend even though his wife, the governor, forbade anyone else from doing the same.
  • The Speaker of The House of Representatives forced her favorite hair salon to open so she could get her hair done in San Francisco, a city that required hair salons to not serve anyone inside a building and required people wear masks, something the Speaker did not do.
You get the idea, politicians in this country kind of think of themselves as royalty where laws, rules, and edicts that they put forth which put burdens on us should not have to apply to them.

The latest hypocrisy has come to light out in San Francisco:
  • Local politicians have forced private city gyms, gyms where the great majority of people go to work out in that metro area, to stay closed since last March in order to tamp down the spread of the virus.
  • What was not shared with the public until recently was the reality that gyms inside of government buildings were shut down for only a very short while and that government employees had been using indoor gyms for months during the crisis even though non-government workers were denied access to their favorite non-government gyms.
  • This hypocrisy is not sitting well with both gym owners and gym members, as explained by Daniel Rabkin, who works at Crossfit Goldent Gate: “It’s shocking, it’s infuriating. Even though they’re getting exposed, there are no repercussions, no ramifications? It’s shocking.”
  • Thus, judges, police officers, paralegals, lawyers and bailiffs have had free, government gym access while private citizens were denied access to their gyms.
  • Dave Karraker, owner of MX3 Fitness: “It just demonstrates that there seems to be some kind of a double standard between what city employees are allowed to do and what the residents of San Francisco are allowed to do.”
“Do as I say, not as I do,” a hypocrisy that is alive and well in the city of San Francisco.

2) Picking up on a point made above, we have previously discussed how Nancy Pelosi showed unmitigated gall to force a San Francisco beauty salon to open, against current local city edicts, in order to get her hair done. On top of this egregious act, a video shows her walking around without a mask on, in violation of her complaints when Trump did not wear a mask in public.

Given that background:
  • London Breed is the current mayor of San Francisco.
  • I think it is a pretty assumption that he was intimately involved in passing and enforcing local San Francisco edicts and rules that were put in place to fight the spread of the coronavirus.
  • However, when asked what he thought of Pelosi who blatantly ignored at least two of those rules and edicts, he did not blame Pelosi.
  • Instead, he went off on a wild tangent to avoid blaming Pelosi and ranted against Trump: “Speak of revolutionary. The reigns of our country are in the hands of an arsonist and an outright dictator. Pelosi is a woman with courage. She is right at the forefront, battling the powerful ruler of the United States every single second. It takes immense fearlessness in a person to stand against the president of a country. Nancy Pelosi is doing her job by following all essential protocols to the T.” 
Uh, no, she did not follow “all essential protocols to the T,” she blatantly disregarded at least two of them, protocols that the mayor and his administration put in place.

He continued to dig this hole deeper and deeper when he said he did not want to comment any more, that this was a petty issue and there were other bigger problems to be faced and resolved including the business and personal economic hardships caused by the virus.

Another example of `”do as I say, not as I do.” If it is such a petty thing that Pelosi did, then why should any ordinary citizen follow the rules, Pelosi did not. 

However, given the royalty persona of American politicians, you can bet that if an ordinary person forced a hair salon to open, in violation of the mayor’s edict, and walked around without a face mask, in violation of the mayor’s edict, that person’s transgression would not be viewed as petty, there would be real consequences for violations. 

It is just that politicians view themselves as special and above rules and regulations and as the mayor has shown, they cover for each other, diverting away from the real transgressions.

3) There are so many atrociously bad mayors around the country it is difficult to pick one out. From de Blasio in NYC to Lightfoot in Chicago to Seattle to San Francisco to LA, so many inept people doing such an inept job. One day de Blasio has the lead for worst mayor until Lightfoot one ups him, so hard to decide.

But the mayor of Portland, Oregon, Mayor Ted Wheeler, has done a real solid job of being the worst mayor in the country. For over 100 days he has allowed anarchists to march, attack police, attack civilians, set fires and actually drive him out of his home like a coward in the night.

And despite all of his failures and bad decisions, he recently added to his level of incompetence:
  • Despite 100 days of destruction and rioting, he has now prohibited the police from using tear gas, a non-lethal crowd control option.
  • Specifically: “We need something different. We need it now. It’s time for everyone to reduce the violence in our community. We all want change. We all have the opportunity and obligation to create change. We all want to focus on the fundamental issue at hand–justice for Black people and all people of color.”
  • He added that he is working with the Oregon legislature to seek “safer alternatives” to non-lethal gas.”
  • The Portland Police Bureau of course disagrees with this insanity, pointing out that tear gas has been used sparingly and only when lives were in danger which required to disperse the rioters.
  • In addition they correctly pointed out that: “Banning the lawful use of CS will make it very difficult to address this kind of violence without resorting to much higher levels of physical force, with a correspondingly elevated risk of serious injury to members of the public and officers.”
What an idiot. Nobody is getting seriously hurt from this gas and it is only being used to save lives and he has a problem with it. He is investigating other options but has none yet but still he has a problem with it. Seems he should have higher sense of urgency over the 100 straight nights of violence and riots and not a useful police riot control option, especially when he has no replacement technique. And maybe once, just once, he should give the Portland police the help and support they need after over 100 days of protecting city lives and property.

But no, he would rather support the rioters night in and night out and after 100 days have no solutions to the violence ripping through his city. Of course, he talks big: “Arson, vandalism, and violence are not going to drive change in this community. I expect the police to arrest people who engage in criminal acts. I expect the District Attorney to prosecute those who commit criminal acts. And I expect the rest of the criminal justice system to hold those individuals accountable. We must stand together as a community against violence and for progress.”

Big talk, little action. After 100 days and nights of violence and anarchy, it is obvious he is not the answer, he is just a pawn being thrown about from a situation he allowed to fester and grow out of control. Today, he is the worst mayor in the country.

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:





No comments: