May, 2016, Bonus Post, Political Class Insanity: Obama The War President, Apple Invests in China, and More

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. In fact, last month we set a record, needing ten full posts to cover it all.

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.

This is our 12th post this month on America’s political class insanity. It sets a record for this blog on covering such disgusting behavior from our nation’s politicians. It is a sad commentary on the state of the country and those that are supposed to be leaders. 

I thought we were done with this month's insanity yesterday but as quickly as we review and discuss their insanity and idiocy, more insanity comes raining down on us. Thus, today's insnaity bonus post which is definitely our final look at this month’s insanity:

1) We have often reported on how poorly the Obama Presidency has handled economic strategy and the dismal results it has produced. Tens of millions of Americans needing Federal food assistance every month, millions of people who cannot find a full time job, settling for no job or only a part time job, the labor participation rate at 45 year old lows, etc. And as bad as the total, national results are, segments of the population are seeing far worse results, Minority unemployment and youth unemployment are much higher than the dismal national results we just reviewed.

Thus, one would think and hope that if the Federal government had some job creation money set aside they would use it for these sub-segments of the population, especially kids, to try and help them get at least summer jobs. Well, the good news is that the Feds do have a pot of money for such an effort. The bad news, is the Obama administration has set aside $2 million of it to help refugee kids, 400 hundred of them, get a summer job in Utica, New York under the so-called Summer Opportunity Project. Not American citizens' kids getting job help, not American kids stuck in American ghettos in cities like Chicago and Detroit getting job help. No, refugee kids in a single upstate New York city. 

In addition to getting summer jobs, these refugee kids will also get tutoring in math and English while, again, disadvantaged American citizens' kids will get nothing. Am I the only one who sees the insanity of using taxpayer dollars for programs like this, while ignoring our own kids, or am I a racist?

2) Apple recently announced that it was investing $1 billion in a Chinese car service that will compete directly with Uber in China. I have no problem with this, it is Apple's money, they are certainly free to invest it anywhere where it will maximize shareholder and company value the most. I do lament the fact that they found a better opportunity to invest $1 billion in China vs. the United States though, all because of the very, very high tax rates that the Federal government has in place for businesses.

Wouldn't it have been so much better for Americans if Apple found it easier and cheaper to invest $1 billion in America rather than China? How many jobs could a $1 billion investment create in this country? How much more in tax revenue would the Federal government have received if those jobs, that would be created by the $1 billion invested here, tax revenue that would recur year after year? Instead, Washington continues to not address a broken tax system and insanely high set of tax rates that forces companies to invest billions and billions of dollars in other countries. 

As a result, the Federal government gets no revenue from billions and billions of dollars kept and stranded overseas, American workers lose out on job opportunities that those stranded dollars could afford them, and the Federal government never sees the recurring revenue from jobs created domestically if those stranded dollars were spent here rather than in places like China.

But this $1 billion China investment is really small fish relative to the bigger picture. According to a recent article on the Personal Liberty website, if Apple brought back all of the money it has stranded over sees, it would pay a whopping $50 billion in taxes on it. Instead of cutting Apple a break and getting a smaller piece of this stranded money, but billions and billions of dollars invested in our economy, the political class refuses to reform our tax code and ends up getting $0 from that $50 billion. Imagine the economic boost our economy would get if Apple was allowed to bring tens of billions of dollars back home and invest it here and not get whacked with a $50 billion tax bill?

And Apple is just one of many large companies that could bring back tens or hundreds of billions of dollars back into this country for investment if we had a tax code that incentivized investment and economic growth rather than taxation. Tax code insanity, economic idiocy.

3) Remember how earlier in this month's political class insanity we pointed out that the Washington political class, Congress and Obama were working on legislation that would make the American bison the country's official mammal? At that time we pointed out how petty and stupid their priorities were, worrying about what should be the country's official mammal when tens of millions of Americans were either hungry, homeless, unemployed, under employed, dying from drug addiction or having their kids get under educated from failing schools. 

According to a recent Associated Press report, their priorities are still petty and stupid. The House of Representatives recently spent legislative time to ban the display of Confederate flags on flagpoles at Veterans Administration cemeteries. The legislation would ban descendants, family members, and others seeking to commemorate veterans of the Confederate States of America from flying the Confederate Battle Flag over mass graves, even on days that flag displays are permitted. 

Not surprising, a Congressman from the land of fruits and nuts, California, sponsored the legislation. I am assuming that there are no hungry, homeless, unemployed or drug addicts in his state, otherwise her would not have proposed such useless legislation that will impact virtually no one in the whole country. Insanely bad priorities.

4) Remember back or a year or so ago on how everyone was worried that the so-called PIGS of Europe, Portugal, Italy, Greece, and Spain, were going to go bankrupt because their central government debt burden had gotten so out of control? European politicians were falling all over themselves to try and come up with debt relief and debt solutions before the debt crushed their economies and their nations. 

According to CNBC, Spain has not improved their debt solution much since, as of a week or so ago, the central government of Spain had a national debt burden of $1.23 TRILLION at the end of the first quarter. This enormous debt burden represents 101% of the country's GDP in 2015. In other words, the debt burden is so high that it represents over 100% of all the goods and services produced by every Spanish citizen last year. 

Oh, by the way, the U.S. national debt level is higher than Spain's 101%, putting the U.S. Federal government financials on a par, or worse, than the PIGS of Europe. All thanks to an Obama administration that doubled the debt load in eight short years, incurring more debt than EVERY Presidential administration before him.

5) Although Obama won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize, the New York Times recently ran an article proving Obama will go down in history as the only two term President that was actively involved in war and military activities the ENTIRE length of his Presidency. From prematurely withdrawing U.S. troops in Iraq in order to win a second term only to reinsert troops later to a failed military effort in Afghanistan over the past eight years to drone attacks that have killed hundreds of innocent civilians in Pakistan and Afghanistan, to an illegal and un-Constitutional entry into the Libyan civil war to the illegal meddling in Syria which led to the the deaths, wounding, and homelessness of millions of Syrians, to putting "boots on the ground" in Syria after saying numerous times he would never to such a thing to bombings in Yemen, he will go down in history as the longest war President ever.

And to this infamous record, we add the latest bit of military forays from a CNN report. CNN reported that Obama has, probably illegally, inserted U.S. Special Forces troops into the country of Libya in an effort to contain the influence of ISIS, the worst terrorist group to ever exist that arose out of the Obama administration's meddling in Syria. The Special Forces are operating out of a base in Misrata, Libya. The Pentagon has acknowledged the new presence of our military presence in that country.

As usual with most of Obama's unilateral actions, Congress and the American people have had no input to his wild and often reckless military misadventures and the strategy behind them. And that assumes there is a military and political strategy to Obama using military forces and might in at least six countries. Our military actions have killed and wounded thousands of civilians, hundreds of our own troops, cost hundreds of billions of dollars, with no measurable or apparent return benefit. That is certainly insanity of the nth degree.

That will do it for this month's record breaking review of political class insanity. Unfortunately, this might be a short term record, given the accelerating rate of political class insanity.

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:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

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

Part 4: Why Gay Marriage And The Confederate Flag Are Meaningless Issues Relative To The Lobbyist Behind The Curtain

Over the past three days we have been discussing a theme that goes as follows: “Why Gay Marriage and The Confederate Flag Are Meaningless Issues Relative To The Lobbyist Behind the Curtain.” The purpose of the posts was to do a reality check in that even though the issues of gay marriage and the Confederate flag are hot and “trending” this week, they are minor nits on a fly’s butt compared to the three other issues we discussed in those blog posts:

1. Monday we discussed the writings of Gary Hart, a former liberal U.S. Senator and Presidential candidate and his correct conclusions that we are being overrun by the most corrupt political class of all time and the lobbyists that drive their corruptness.
2. Two days ago, we discussed the fact that when the whole economy and financial viability of the U.S., collapses due to political class overspending and fiscal insanity, whether or not one has a new type of marriage license or a flag will be totally insignificant in the economic downfall of the country.
3. Yesterday we discussed a whole range of issues that will affect most Americans, not just a small percentage like gay marriage and the flag.

Today, in our final post under this theme, we will review an outstanding piece of journalism from the www.vox.com website, an article that paints a picture and probability of World War III, starting in the Baltic states, that is terrifying.

But before we do that, I am going to run the explanatory paragraphs we used the past three days to set up the reason why we find “Why Gay Marriage and The Confederate Flag Are Meaningless Issues Relative To The Lobbyist Behind the Curtain.”

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

Later this week we will post our monthly series of political class insanity posts. Every month we gather and discussed the latest insanity, ineptness, wasteful spending, and corruption of the American political class. Unfortunately for us, over the years we have been doing this feature, every month we have needed more and more time just to cover one month’s worth of insanity.

Before we do that for July’s insanity, let’s look at some bigger picture issues that dwarf the wasteful spending, idiotic programs and laws, stupid quotes, and overall inept performance of the American class. Yes, it is important to point out how wasteful spending goes on in Washington, how government and political class programs never efficiently or effectively implement their goals, how stupid our politicians often sound when they open their mouths.

But the two topics we will discuss yesterday and today dwarf these issues. In fact, the top two social and political issues being hotly debated these days are also nits relative to the two overarching issues we will be discussing this week. It really does not matter what you think about gay marriage and the Supreme Court’s recent decision on it. It really does not matter what you think about the Confederate flag and what it stands for. 

Talking about them in the context of the bigger issues is a total waste of time since both issues pale in comparison to the two bigger issues. The gay and lesbian community consists of less than 5% of the nation’s population. Confederate flag supporters are probably comparable in numbers, small minorities in the country. 

But unless we address the major issue of political corruption in Washington (yesterday’s topic) and the unrelenting build up of the national debt (today’s issue) and the wasteful spending that goes with it, then who can get married and who can fly a flag of their choice will become totally, totally irrelevant in our near future since these two bigger issues affect EVERY American, not just a small minority of them.

Yesterday’s post is based on the writings of liberal former Senator and Presidential candidate Gary Hart. He is the author of 21 books and the following quotes come from his recent book, “The Republic Of Conscience.” While I have pulled out only a subset of quotes from his book that was discussed in a recent Time magazine article, I encourage everyone to go to that online Time article at:

http://time.com/3937860/gary-hart-america-corruption/

Mr. Hart eloquently and precisely points out how our democratic processes have been thoroughly corrupted by the American political class and the media, lobbyists, and organized political entities that feast on those processes and American tax dollars and freedoms. We have discussed this corruption of the democratic processes before,both in this blog and our book, “Love My Country, Loathe My Government.”

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

Today we will focus on a wonderful piece of journalism from the website, www.vox.com. Upfront, let me tell you that I am not a big fan of most of Vox’s work. They are like the MSNBC of the Internet, strictly Obama and very liberal fan wavers. However, Max Fisher in his June 29, 2015 article, “How World War III Became Possible - A Nuclear Conflict With Russia Is Likelier Than You Think," is well written, thoroughly researched and scary as hell. I would suggest that those interested in the future of America and the human race read the entire article at:

http://www.vox.com/2015/6/29/8845913/russia-war

Below we will contain some highlights of his findings, using the original sub-topics he used in the entire article.

Introduction

- "Moscow is convinced the West is bent on isolating, subjugating, or outright destroying Russia. One in three Russians now believe the US may invade. Western nations worry, with reason, that Russia could use the threat of war, or provoke an actual conflict, to fracture NATO and its commitment to defend Eastern Europe. This would break the status quo order that has peacefully unified Europe under Western leadership, and kept out Russian influence, for 25 years.”

- "If you take a walk around Washington or a Western European capital today, there is no feeling of looming catastrophe. The threats are too complex, with many moving pieces and overlapping layers of risk adding up to a larger danger that is less obvious. People can be forgiven for not seeing the cloud hanging over them, for feeling that all is well — even as in Eastern Europe they are digging in for war. But this complacency is itself part of the problem, making the threat more difficult to foresee, to manage, or, potentially, to avert.”

- "There is a growing chorus of political analysts, arms control experts, and government officials who are sounding the alarm, trying to call the world's attention to its drift toward disaster. The prospect of a major war, even a nuclear war, in Europe has become thinkable, they warn, even plausible.”

I. The warnings: "War is not something that's impossible anymore"

- "A question that was absolutely impossible a couple of years ago, whether there might be a war, a real war, is back," Fyodor Lukyanov, head of an influential Russian think tank. "People ask it. The perception is that somebody would try to undermine Russia as a country that opposes the United States, and then we will need to defend ourselves by military means. Such fears, vague but existential, are everywhere in Moscow. Even liberal opposition leaders I met with, pro-Western types who oppose Putin, expressed fears that the US posed an imminent threat to Russia's security."

- "One can hear eerie echoes of the events a century ago that produced the catastrophe known as World War I," Harvard professor and longtime Pentagon adviser Graham Allison wrote in a May cover story for the National Interest, co-authored with Russia analyst Dimitri Simes. 

- Their article, "Russia and America: Stumbling To War," warned that an unwanted, full-scale conflict between the US and Russia was increasingly plausible.

- Seems Europeans are more aware of these realities than Americans:

• A Swedish military security official stated in March that there are Russian intelligence operations already going on in Sweden.
• In May, the defense minister of Finland sent letters to 900,000 Finns, one sixth of the total population, telling them to prepare to be drafted in case of a “crisis situation.”
• Lithuania has already instituted a military draft.
• Poland has already identified a specific general who will take over as military commander in case a war breaks out.
• In April, NATO and other Western officials gathered in Estonia, a former Soviet republic and NATO member on Russia's border that Western analysts most worry could become ground zero for a major war with Russia, one that might include a limited Russian nuclear strike in Europe.

II. The gamble: Putin's plan to make Russia great again

- According to Mr. Fisher, the root cause of all this anxiety is Russia’s Putin: “That problem is this: Putin's Russia is weak. It can no longer stand toe to toe with the US. It no longer has Europe divided in a stalemate; rather, it sees the continent as dominated by an ever-encroaching anti-Russian alliance. In the Russian view, the country's weakness leaves it at imminent risk, vulnerable to a hostile West bent on subjugating or outright destroying Russia as it did to Iraq and Libya.”

- This paranoia is driven by Putin’s domestic problems of civil unrest, hard economic times, and a repressive regime.

- Thus, to divert attention from these failings he looks for someone outside of Russia to blame for that country’s problems.

- Mr. Fisher: “Unable to cross America's red lines, Putin is doing his best to muddy them — and, to deter the Americans, muddying his own. Turning otherwise routine diplomatic and military incidents into games of high-stakes chicken favors Russia, he believes, as the West will ultimately yield to his superior will.”

- RAND's F. Stephen Larrabee wrote in one of his urgent warning pieces: "The Russia that the United States faces today is more assertive and more unpredictable — and thus, in many ways, more dangerous — than the Russia that the United States confronted during the latter part of the Cold War."

- Joseph Nye, the dean of Harvard University's school of government and one of America's most respected international relations scholars, compared the current situation to the conditions that set off World War I: "Russia seems doomed to continue its decline — an outcome that should be no cause for celebration in the West. States in decline — think of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1914 — tend to become less risk-averse and thus much more dangerous."

III. The drift: How the unthinkable became possible

- Mr. Fisher: “During the Cold War, the comparably matched Western and Soviet blocs prepared for war but also made sure that war never came. They locked Europe in a tense but stable balance of power; that balance is gone. They set clear red lines and vowed to defend them at all costs. Today, those red lines are murky and ill-defined. Neither side is sure where they lie or what really happens if they are crossed. No one can say for sure what would trigger war.”

- “That is why, analysts will tell you, today's tensions bear far more similarity to the period before World War I: an unstable power balance, belligerence over peripheral conflicts, entangling military commitments, disputes over the future of the European order, and dangerous uncertainty about what actions will and will not force the other party into conflict.”

- However, the wild card difference between today and the conditions before World War is the presence of nuclear weapons, weapons that could cause substantial damage to everything that the Europeans armies one hundred years ago could never accomplish: "It’s not just a difference in rhetoric. It’s a whole different world," Bruce G. Blair, a nuclear weapons scholar at Princeton, told the Wall Street Journal. He called Putin's decisions more dangerous than those of any Soviet leader since 1962. "There’s a low nuclear threshold now that didn’t exist during the Cold War."

- The article points out that even limited use of nuclear weapons in a conflict with Russia would make use of bombs that were significantly more powerful than the World War II bombs, bombs that would kill up to a billion people as a result of a “decade of winter,” causing massive crop failures.

We are going to stop our discussion of the article here and just include the sub-topics that Mr. Fisher covers. We cannot do justice to the fine piece of journalism he has here so we strongly recommend you read his entire analysis at the link above.

IV. How it would happen: The Baltics scenario

V. How it would happen: A plot to break NATO

VI. How it would happen: The fog of hybrid war

VII. How it would happen: The Ukraine scenario

VIII. The nuclear dangers: The red line is closer than you think

IX. The nuclear dangers: How Putin is pushing us back to the brink

X. The nuclear dangers: An atomic gun to the world's head

XI. The nuclear dangers: Does Putin believe nuclear war can be "won"?

XII. The nuclear dangers: End games

Let us leave today’s topic with the following quote: "You just can't have this kind of [nuclear] war," Eisenhower said in 1957. "There aren't enough bulldozers to scrape the bodies off the streets."

This concludes our four part series that discussed the reality that there are a lot more important topics, issues, and crises to talk about than gay marriage, which is now settled by the Supreme Court, and the Confederate flag. Because a new piece of marriage license paper or a piece of cloth are nits compared to the financial collapse of the country, the total and thorough corruption of Washington, a much higher than expected potential of nuclear war with Russia in Europe and a myriad of other things we have discussed this week.

Because really, a flag and a piece of paper really kind of mean nothing when we cannot find “enough bulldozers to scrape the bodies off the streets.”

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:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

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

Part 3: Why Gay Marriage and The Confederate Flag Are Meaningless Relative To The Lobbyist Behind The Curtain

Over the past two days we have been discussing a theme that goes as follows: “Why Gay Marriage and The Confederate Flag Are Meaningless Issues Relative To The Lobbyist Behind the Curtain.” The purpose of the two posts was to do a reality check in that even though the issues of gay marriage and the Confederate flag are hot and “trending” this week, they are minor nits on a fly’s butt compared to the two other issues we discussed in those blog posts:

1. Monday we discussed the writings of Gary Hart, a former liberal U.S. Senator and Presidential candidate, and his insightful and correct conclusions that we are being overrun by the most corrupt political class of all time and the lobbyists that drive their corruptness.
2. Yesterday, we discussed the fact that when the whole economy and financial viability of the U.S. collapses due to political class overspending and fiscal insanity, whether or not one has a new type of marriage license or a flag will be totally insignificant in the economic downfall of the country.

Unfortunately, people have pointed out these are not the only two major issues that most of America is ignoring or ignorant off, that other issues are being ignored by the mainstream media in the frenzy to cover what again we consider minor issues in the big scheme of the world and the future of the country. Thus, rather than cutting this theme short, we find it necessary to devote another two days to two other big issues that are threatening this country and our democracy as most of the country frets about a marriage license and a piece of cloth:

• Today we will review a set of critical and dangerous issues/crises that are getting no media play at all.
• Tomorrow we will reivew an outstanding peice of journalism from the www.vox.com website, an article that paints a picture and probability of World War III, starting in the Baltic states, that is terrifying.

But before we do that, I am going to run the explanatory paragraphs we used the past two days to set up the reason why we find “Why Gay Marriage and The Confederate Flag Are Meaningless Issues Relative To The Lobbyist Behind the Curtain.”

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

Later this week we will post our monthly series of political class insanity posts. Every month we gather and discussed the latest insanity, ineptness, wasteful spending, and corruption of the American political class. Unfortunately for us, over the years we have been doing this feature, every month we have needed more and more time just to cover one month’s worth of insanity.

Before we do that for July’s insanity, let’s look at some bigger picture issues that dwarf the wasteful spending, idiotic programs and laws, stupid quotes, and overall inept performance of the American class. Yes, it is important to point out how wasteful spending goes on in Washington, how government and political class programs never efficiently or effectively implement their goals, how stupid our politicians often sound when they open their mouths.

But the two topics we will discuss yesterday and today dwarf these issues. In fact, the top two social and political issues being hotly debated this these days are also nits relative to the two overarching issues we will be discussing today and tomorrow. It really does not matter what you think about gay marriage and the Supreme Court’s recent decision on it. It really does not matter what you think about the Confederate flag and what it stands for. 

Talking about them in the context of the bigger issues is a total waste of time since both issues pale in comparison to the two bigger issues. The gay and lesbian community consists of less than 5% of the nation’s population. Confederate flag supporters are probably comparable in numbers, small minorities in the country. 

But unless we address the major issue of political corruption in Washington (yesterday’s topic) and the unrelenting build up of the national debt (today’s issue) and the wasteful spending that goes with it, then who can get married and who can fly a flag of their choice will become totally, totally irrelevant in our near future since these two bigger issues affect EVERY American, not just a small minority of them.

Yesterday’s post is based on the writings of liberal former Senator and Presidential candidate Gary Hart. He is the author of 21 books and the following quotes come from his recent book, “The Republic Of Conscience.” While I have pulled out only a subset of quotes from his book that was discussed in a recent Time magazine article, I encourage everyone to go to that online Time article at:

http://time.com/3937860/gary-hart-america-corruption/

Mr. Hart eloquently and precisely points out how our democratic processes have been thoroughly corrupted by the American political class and the media, lobbyists, and organized political entities that feast on those processes and American tax dollars and freedoms. We have discussed this corruption of the democratic processes before,both in this blog and our book, “Love My Country, Loathe My Government.”

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

Let’s look at some issues that are much more important and will affect many, many more Americans than gay marriage and a flag:

1. ISIS, the wealthiest terrorist group ever to exist, is still controlling wide swaths of the Middle East and has threatened to attack the U.S. homeland on July 4th. Don’t think they have the capability? Keep in mind that the U.S. Federal government just had a truck hijacked in Mexico that contained over 11,000 U.S. valid travel visas. Put it all together: corrupt Mexican police officials and wealthy drug cartels, rich terrorists, and before you know it we have 11,000 valid U.S. travel visas in the hands of some very violent people who really do not care about gay marriage or the Confederate flag, only about death and destruction within our borders.

2. The Taliban launched a daring attack on the Afghan parliament in the capital of Kabul while its parliament was in session. If the Taliban is making such daring attacks while the U.S. and other nations’ troops are still inside the country, what will they do when the American military presence is severely cut back? If the capital city is not secure and safe from Taliban attacks today, then nowhere else in Afghanistan is safe. 

Thus, as soon as the U.S. pulls its last soldier from the country at some point in the future, the current Afghan government will likely collapse almost immediately, the Taliban will seize power, and the United States’ fourteen year presence in Afghanistan will have been futile. Making the loss of thousands of American lives and the spending of hundreds of billions of dollars, the majority of which was spent during the Obama administration, a total and disgraceful waste.

3. The Pentagon released its new “Law of War Manual.” In it there is a chilling finding, as reported by Anti-Media: 

“One change in terminology directly targets journalists, stating, ‘in general, journalists are civilians. However, journalists may be members of the armed forces […] or unprivileged belligerents.’Apparently, reporters have joined the ranks of al-Qaeda in this new “unprivileged belligerent” designation, which replaces the Bush-era term, ‘unlawful combatants.’ What future repercussions this categorization could bring are left to the imagination…”

In other words, the U.S. armed forces are now justified in killing journalists in a combat zone, apparently based on their interpretation of the situation. For a country that supposedly cherishes freedom, a free press, and the First Amendment, this Federal government/military action has slippery slope all over it. Certainly should be putting a chill in honest journalists and their desire to print the truth but who may now be viewed as enemy combatants for their honest reporting.

4. On June 23, 2015 Wikileaks released more NSA documents that implicate the agency in spying on France, specifically current and former French presidents and members of the French cabinet. According to the documents: “The top secret documents derive from directly targeted NSA surveillance of the communications of French Presidents Holande, Sarkozy, and Chirac, as well as French cabinet ministers and the French Ambassador to the United States.” This brings to 35 foreign countries and their dignitaries that the U.S. Federal government has spied on. So much for a valid foreign policy when you tick off those same allies by spying on them. Or as the new old saying goes under the Obama administration’s failed foreign policies: “Our enemies no longer fear us and our friends no longer trust us.” Tough to trust anyone who spies on you.

5. Speaking of failed foreign policies, Russia is now making noise in the Baltic countries on its western border after invading and occupying large areas in the Ukraine. Given that these Baltic states are members of NATO and are theoretically guaranteed full NATO military assistance if they are attacked by say, Russia, what happens if Russia actually does attacks a country like Estonia? Will NATO counter attack and open the possibility of full fledged war with a nuclear armed Russia or do nothing, which will expose NATO as an empty shell of a defense treaty and thereby render it obsolete? Neither of these two options is good which means something should have been done earlier to make sure these were not the only two options. (Much more detailed discussion tomorrow on this harrowing possibility).

6. And finally, scientists recently came across high levels of Helium 3 in oil rig pipes in southern California. Without going into the details and the science, the bottom line appears to be high concern that Helium 3 is leaking into the underwater oil fields from deep inside the earth’s crust, a new phenomenon, indicating that southern California could be on the verge of a massive earthquake, rendering gay marriage and the Confederate flag meaningless in that state.

Thus, rather than paying so much attention, passion, and venom on gay marriage and the Confederate flag, maybe some of our focus and energies should be focused eklsewhere. Like, on sealing our borders and protecting our citizens from visa-armed ISIS terrorists, making sure that the expense in blood and treasure in Afghanistan is not wasted, protecting the First Amendment from our military who can now legally target journalists for termination, stop spying on our allies, find a way to accommodate the Russian problem without going to the brink of nuclear war over a country that no one could find on a map, and think about putting together an earthquake recovery plan. Time to move onto to other issues that have far more ramifications for far more Americans.

One last post tomorrow on this theme of moving beyond the currently hyped minor issues of the day as we discuss the situation with Russia that no one in the American public is aware of all talking about but one that renders gay marriage and the flag totally insignificant.

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:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

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

Part 2: Why Gay Marriage and The Confederate Flag Are Meaningless Issues Relative To the Lobbyist Behind the Curtain

Later this week we will post our monthly series of political class insanity posts. Every month we gather and discussed the latest insanity, ineptness, wasteful spending, and corruption of the American political class. Unfortunately for us, over the years we have been doing this feature, every month we have needed more and more time just to cover one month’s worth of insanity.

Before we do that for July’s insanity, let’s look at some bigger picture issues that dwarf the wasteful spending, idiotic programs and laws, stupid quotes, and overall inept performance of the American class. Yes, it is important to point out how wasteful spending goes on in Washington, how government and political class programs never efficiently or effectively implement their goals, how stupid our politicians often sound when they open their mouths.
But the two topics we will discuss yesterday and today dwarf these issues. In fact, the top two social and political issues being hotly debated this these days are also nits relative to the two overarching issues we will be discussing today and tomorrow. It really does not matter what you think about gay marriage and the Supreme Court’s recent decision on it. It really does not matter what you think about the Confederate flag and what it stands for. 

Talking about them in the context of the bigger issues is a total waste of time since both issues pale in comparison to the two bigger issues. The gay and lesbian community consists of less than 5% of the nation’s population. Confederate flag supporters are probably comparable in numbers, small minorities in the country. 

But unless we address the major issue of political corruption in Washington (yesterday’s topic) and the unrelenting build up of the national debt (today’s issue) and the wasteful spending that goes with it, then who can get married and who can fly a flag of their choice will become totally, totally irrelevant in our near future since these two bigger issues affect EVERY American, not just a small minority of them.

Yesterday’s post is based on the writings of liberal former Senator and Presidential candidate Gary Hart. He is the author of 21 books and the following quotes come from his recent book, “The Republic Of Conscience.” While I have pulled out only a subset of quotes from his book that was discussed in a recent Time magazine article, I encourage everyone to go to that online Time article at:

http://time.com/3937860/gary-hart-america-corruption/

Mr.Hart eloquently and precisely points out how our democratic processes have been thoroughly corrupted by the American political class and the media, lobbyists, and organized political entities that feast on those processes and American tax dollars and freedoms. We have discussed this corruption of the democratic processes before,both in this blog and our book, “Love My Country, Loathe My Government.”

Today’s post will use the framework laid out by Townhall writer John Hawkins in his recent article, “5 Mistakes That Will Lead To The Fall Of America.” As we discussed above, if these five mistakes are not fixed or at least minimized soon, all the other issues facing us, including gay marriage and the Confederate flag, will not matter once the economy and the democracy we currently live in collapse.

Mr. Hawkins starts out about speculating on how great civilizations failed historically. However, when getting to why America might collapse, he is pretty sure that the reason will include all or many of the following situations:

1) Unsustainable Debt: 

- By 2020, nonpartisan economic forecasters estimate that we will need 20% of the entire planet’s GDP just to finance the Federal government’s debt load.

- Within the next few years, the Federal government’s debt load will likely exceed a whopping $25 TRILLION.

- At $25 TRILLION that means that the national debt would have gone from about $10 billion to $25 billion since the end of the Bush administration through the Obama administration.

- At that time, the per person debt load in the country for each person, including newborn infants, will be about $75,000 PER PERSON. Thus, an American family of four would have to ante up $300,000 just to help pay their fair share of the national debt.

- The main culprits in this debt issue will be Social Security and Medicare (and Obama Care which is busting its budget forecasts every day) which are both already hurtling towards financial insolvency unless severe changes are made to the programs, changes that will probably be beyond the courage and will of our political class.

- And speaking of too late, Donald TRump, during his announcement that he is running for President, stated that he had analysis that the financial tipping point for the debt, that point where the country can no longer pay off its obligations, is $24 TRILLION, a TRILLION dollars less than what we discussed above.

- Now, you may not politically or personally like Trump but he is at least the first one to put a stake in the ground of when the country collapses financially. He may be wrong but until someone comes up with a better number, he is the leader in the club house. There is a number, a tipping point, and right now, $24 TRILLION is that bogey.

- But we cannot say we did not have a warning. Back in the 2012 Presidential campaign, Mitt Romney warned us what would happen if Obama was reelected: “If the president were re-elected, we'd go to almost $20 trillion of national debt. This puts us on a road to Greece.” Three years later we are on that road to both $20 TRILLION worth of debt during the Obama administration, a doubling of the country’s debt just in Obama’s two terms, and we are also on the road to Greece, which is about to face financial ruin with its debt after the July 5 Greek referendum.

- And by the way, as we have shown previously in this blog, you cannot tax the rich more to fix this problem. Consider the following simple math exercise:

• Rather than tax Bill Gates, the richest man in America, at a higher tax rate, let’s hypothetically assume that we confiscate ALL of his wealth and give it to the Federal government.
• If memory serves me right, his current estimated wealth is about $83 billion.
• In today’s world, the Federal government spends about $11 billion a DAY, 365 days a year.
• Thus, Bill Gates’ wealth could run the Federal government for less than 8 days or pay off a meager .3% of the national debt at $25 TRILLION.
• And even if you could confiscate the wealth of America’s richest people, you would not be able to run the Federal government for a year or pay off anywhere near the amount of national debt to make a difference if we do not curtail, severely curtail, government spending.

- Mr. Hawkins concludes this section with a couple of forecasts of what the collapse will look like to which we add a few of our own:

• Taxation will rise dramatically, affecting every American and resulting in slower and slower economic growth and less tax revenue which will require more taxation which will result in slower economic growth and which will start the inevitable Greek-like financial death spiral.
• At some point, the political class might hit on the bright idea of inflation to cure the debt problem, using inflated dollars to pay off uninflated dollars, a strategy that is sure to fail, “our money will be inflated so much that we’ll need wheelbarrows full of greenbacks to buy a loaf of bread.” See Germany, post World War I
• Or the political class can pull the Cyprus move where the government forcibly goes into bank accounts and steals citizens’ money to try and pay off the ever rising debt level, a move that destroys any concept that we are still living in a free country.

2) Enormous Centralized Government:

- Or as Mr. Hawkins says, The bigger the tick, the less blood there is for the dog and there is no larger collection of blood suckers on Planet Earth than our own federal government.”

- Our government has become so large, so Jabba the Hutt-like from Star Wars, formless, tyrannical, usurper of resources, that lawmakers have no clue what the ramifications will be on anything they vote on, assuming they read what the vote on.

- Government regulators and bureaucrats produce thousands of new regulations every year to justify their existence without caring how that affects economic growth or Americans. 

- As a result of this massive bureaucracy, somehow 49% of all Americans get some kind of public assistance from the Federal government. As a result according to the article, “That has not only bled the private sector and made our economy less dynamic, it has led to massive corruption.” 

- As we discussed in yesterday’s post via the Gary Hart analysis, consider the quote of P.J. O’Rourke who said, “When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are legislators.”
3) An Overly-Progressive Income Tax Code: 

- We have a massive tax code, over 70,000 pages, that no one really understands and which leads to massive tax evasion.

- We have a massive tax code that allows half of the country to not pay any Federal income taxes, forcing the other half to pay more than they should.

- We are taxed so heavily at all levels of government that Tax Freedom Day requires most Americans to work about 30% of the year just to pay their tax bills. This is not taxation, this is repression.

- And more than a few economists will tell you that the current tax code and the out of control spending it supports stifle innovation, business development, and economic growth, making it more difficult for every American to move up the economic ladder of success, a ladder that is being shredded by the Federal government’s depth and size today.

- Mr. Hawkins wonders “What happens when the tax code gets so skewed that the “takers” outnumber the “makers” in the United States? We’re getting very close to that tipping point and it’s doubtful that we’ll like the answer when we find out.”

4) Moral Decay: 

- While not directly economically related, Mr. Hawkins does spend some time on what he calls “the moral decay” of America.

- We have the largest prison population in the world on both an absolute basis and per person basis.

- Drug use is still rampant across many parts of our society.

- 41% of American births today are out of wedlock.

- But indirectly, all of these realities do hinder economic growth since it costs taxpayer money to run the biggest prison system in the world, it costs taxpayer money to fight a losing War On Drugs and to treat addicts, and it costs taxpayer money to support out of wedlock kids and their likely single parents.




5) Backward Immigration Policies:

-Our immigration policies do not encourage the best, the brightest and most economically productive immigrants to come to America.

-Instead, according to the article, “in 2010, 36 percent of immigrant-headed households receive benefits from at least one welfare program, compared to just 23 percent of households headed by U.S. natives. Among households with children, immigrant welfare households outnumbered non-immigrants by a similarly wide margin: 57 percent to 40 percent.”

- Economically, why would we want to bring someone into our country who’s going to end up on the dole when our financial situation is becoming so dangerous?

- Hawkins: “Instead of selecting the cream of the crop, the rich, the geniuses, the skilled, and people who can add to our tax base, we take pretty much anybody who has a relative here or who claims that he’d be in danger in his home country (and let’s face it, the vast majority of them are lying). This is even truer for illegal immigrants who are overwhelmingly poor, uneducated, minimally skilled and by definition, are not law-abiding people. In a world where an education and a high level of skill are becoming ever more necessary to get most jobs worth having, why import massive numbers of people who will never fit that definition to undercut poor American workers who are already struggling to climb the ladder?”

So yesterday, we talked about political corruption of Washington as guided by Gary Hart. Today, we discussed the financial corruption of America and its economy as guided by John Hawkins. In light of these comments, observations, realities, and the massive corruption they both correctly identify, worrying about who marries who and who can fly a certain flag pale in comparison. Because in the end, if all we are left with in our democracy is a new type of marriage license and a piece of cloth on a flagpole, at the expense of our economic and political freedom, then who really cares?

The people pulling the strings in this country care only about themselves. They have put up and now fan the flames of other issues to prevent anyone from focusing on the political and financial destruction they are raining down on all of us. Smarten up people, pull the curtain back on the real issues that can destroy the country, not the smaller issues that politicians use to divide us and divert our attention from the havoc they have wrought.

“If we ever pass out as a great nation, we ought to put on our tombstone: America died from the delusion that she has moral leadership.” Will Rogers.

Part 1: Why Gay Marriage and The Confederate Flag Are Meaningless issues Relative To the Lobbyist Behind the Curtain

Later this week we will post our monthly series of political class insanity posts. Every month we gather and discussed the latest insanity, ineptness, wasteful spending, and corruption of the American political class. Unfortunately for us, over the years we have been doing this feature, every month we have needed more and more time just to cover one month’s worth of insanity.

Before we do that for July’s insanity, let’s look at some bigger picture, longer term issues that dwarf the wasteful spending, idiotic programs and laws, stupid quotes, and overall inept performance of the American class. Yes, it is important to point out how wasteful spending goes on in Washington, how government and political class programs never efficiently or effectively implement their goals, how stupid our politicians often sound when they open their mouths.

But the longer term two topics we will discuss in the next two days dwarf these issues. In fact, the top two social and political issues being hotly debated this these days are also nits relative to the two overarching issues we will be discussing today and tomorrow. It really does not matter what you think about gay marriage and the Supreme Court’s recent decision on it. It really does not matter what you think about the Confederate flag and what it stands for. 

Talking about them in the context of the bigger issues is a total waste of time since both issues pale in comparison to the two bigger issues. The gay and lesbian community consists of less than 5% of the nation’s population. Confederate flag supporters are probably comparable in numbers, small minorities in the country. 

But unless we address the major issue of political corruption in Washington (today’s topic) and the unrelenting build up of the national debt (tomorrow’s issue), then who can get married and who can fly a flag of their choice will become totally, totally irrelevant in our near future since these two bigger issues affect EVERY American, not just a small minority of them.

Today’s post is based on the writings of liberal former Senator and Presidential candidate Gary Hart. He is the author of 21 books and the following quotes come from his recent book, “The Republic Of Conscience.” While I have pulled out only a subset of quotes from his book that was discussed in a recent Time magazine article, I encourage everyone to go to that online Time article at:

http://time.com/3937860/gary-hart-america-corruption/

Mr. Hart eloquently and precisely points out how our democratic processes have been thoroughly corrupted by the American political class and the media, lobbyists, and organized political entities that feast on those processes and American tax dollars and freedoms. We have discussed this corruption of the democratic processes before,both in this blog and our book, “Love My Country, Loathe My Government.”

However, I think that you read the following quotes from his book, you will see that he is probably a little more eloquent than this blog in pleading the case that money and the infestation it is installed in our democracy has fundamentally changed America and that change has not been for the best. While it has enriched politicians and those that abuse the political process, it has left the rest of America poorer and less free in the process.

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1. Four qualities have distinguished republican government from ancient Athens forward: the sovereignty of the people; a sense of the common good; government dedicated to the commonwealth; and resistance to corruption. Measured against the standards established for republics from ancient times, the American Republic is massively corrupt.
2. In the governing of a republic, corruption was self-interest placed above the interest of all—the public interest.
3. There has never been a time, however, when the government of the United States was so perversely and systematically dedicated to special interests, earmarks, side deals, log-rolling, vote-trading, and sweetheart deals of one kind or another.
4. What brought us to this? A sinister system combining staggering campaign costs, political contributions, political action committees, special interest payments for access, and, most of all, the rise of the lobbying class.
5. Worst of all, the army of lobbyists that started relatively small in the mid-twentieth century has now grown to big battalions of law firms and lobbying firms of the right, left, and an amalgam of both.
6. There is little wonder that Americans of the right and many in the middle are apoplectic at their government and absolutely, and rightly, convinced that the game of government is rigged in favor of the elite and the powerful. Occupiers see even more wealth rising to the top at the expense of the poor and the middle class. And Tea Partiers believe their tax dollars are going to well-organized welfare parasites and government bureaucrats.
7. Recent months have seen, in effect, the legalization of Watergate. Who would have thought, forty years after the greatest political scandal and presidential abuse of power in U.S. history, that the Supreme Court of the United States would rule the practices that financed that scandal were now legal?
8. And, of course, the ultimate victims of the corruption of the democratic process are not defeated candidates and parties but America’s citizens. 
9. The advent of legalized corruption launched by the Supreme Court empowers the superrich to fund their own presidential and congressional campaigns as pet projects, to foster pet policies, and to represent pet political enclaves. You have a billion, or even several hundred million, then purchase a candidate from the endless reserve bench of minor politicians and make him or her a star, a mouthpiece for any cause or purpose however questionable, and that candidate will mouth your script in endless political debates and through as many television spots as you are willing to pay for. All legal now.
10. To compound the political felony, much, if not most, campaign financing is now carried out in secret, so that everyday citizens have a decreasing ability to determine to whom their elected officials are beholden and to whom they must now give special access.
11. To add to the profound misdirection of American politics by the Supreme Court, we now have what might be called convergence in the garden of government influence.
12. The context is the lobbying maze in Washington and the convergence of dozens of noxious weeds in the garden of government into a handful of giant predator thornbushes now devouring that garden. Of this handful, the largest by far is WPP (originally called Wire and Plastic Products; is there a metaphor here?), which has its headquarters in London and more than 150,000 employees in 2,500 offices spread around 107 countries. It, together with one or two conglomerating competitors, represents a fourth branch of government, vacuuming up former senators and House members and their spouses and families, key committee staff, former senior administration officials of both parties and several administrations, and ambassadors, diplomats, and retired senior military officers.
13. Think of the banks that can be bailed out, the range of elaborate weapons systems that can be sold to the government, the protection from congressional scrutiny that can be paid for, the economic policies that can be manipulated.
14. The lobbying business is no longer about votes up or down on particular measures that may emerge in Congress or policies made in the White House. It is about setting agendas, deciding what should and should not be brought up for hearings and legislation.
15. America’s founders knew one thing: The republics of history all died when narrow interests overwhelmed the common good and the interests of the commonwealth.
16. What would our founders make of this nightmare of corruption? We only know, in Thomas Jefferson’s case, for example, that his distrust of central government had to do with the well-founded and prescient suspicion that its largesse would go to powerful and influential interests, especially financiers, who knew how to manipulate both the government and the financial markets. 
17. All they knew was how to respond to their industry lobbyists’ requests for very large contributions to compliant members of congressional finance committees and to do so quickly and often. And they did get their money’s worth.
18. Americans cannot hold ourselves up to the world as the beacon of democracy so long as we permit, as long as we acquiesce in, corruption so far beyond the standards of the true republic that our government cannot be proclaimed an ideal for other aspiring nations.
19. On a more personal level, how can public service be promoted as an ideal to young people when this sewer corrupts our Republic? 
20. But it is impossible to claim to love one’s country and not be outraged at how corrupt it has become. For former senators and representatives to trade a title given them by the voters of their respective states and districts for cash is beyond shameful. It is outrageous.
21. It is an error of serious proportion to dismiss corruption in twenty-first-century American democracy on the grounds that this has all been going on from the beginning, that boys will be boys, that politicians are always on the take. Past incidents of the violation of public ethics provide no argument for accepting the systemic and cancerous commercialization of modern American politics.
22. And, as scholars of ancient Greek and Roman political texts, they knew in their minds and in their hearts that a republic with leaders who lacked virtue would not long survive.
23. ...is to invite the eventual erosion of the ideal of the American Republic, to reduce this great nation and its heritage to the worst kind of mundane governance, to prostitute a noble experiment on the altar of expediency and greed, and to leave coming generations to ponder what went wrong.
24. “Just because it is legal doesn’t make it right” should be carved above every congressional doorway, every cabinet department, and even the White House itself. 
25. The fact that many former presidents and prime ministers of European democracies have enriched themselves in questionable ways after leaving office does not justify similar behavior on the part of American politicians. We hold ourselves to a higher standard.
26. We are in danger of becoming a different kind of nation, one our founders would not recognize and would deplore.
27. Because of the erosion of the integrity of our governing system, and the principles and ideals underlying it, the fiscal deficit increases. The government spending so many conservatives claim to abhor includes not only the social safety net of Roosevelt and Johnson, but also the war-making excursions of Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. It is all government spending. And it includes favorite pork-barrel projects of every member of both houses of Congress of both political parties...
28. We were not created to be like other nations. We were created as an alternative to monarchy, aristocracy, oligarchy, and corrupt political systems. The more we follow the easy path, the one paved for the benefit of the wealthy and powerful, the more we stray from our originally intended purpose and the more we lose our unique purpose for existence.
29. The question is: By adhering to its highest principles and ideals, will America continue to have the moral authority to lead all people of goodwill? The answer remains to be seen. And that answer will have much to do with whether we have the courage to drive the money changers from the temple of democracy and recapture government of the people, for the people, and by the people.
30. Bad politics drives out good politics. Legalized corruption drives men and women of stature, honor, and dignity out of the halls of government. Self-respecting individuals cannot long tolerate a system of election and reelection so dependent on cultivating the favor of those known to expect access in return. Such a system is corrosive to the soul.
31. Campaigning is a major industry now that consumes hundreds of millions of dollars and, in national campaigns, billions of dollars. Almost all of it goes to the media, the same media whose commentators regularly deplore the costs of campaigns.
32. It [lobbying] is a great hydra-headed monster, one that is rapidly devouring American democracy.
33. The significant issue is the effect of this relatively recent conversion of a democratic process to a major industry that devours money. 
34. We are not the same country we started out to be. We cannot conduct our political process the way we are doing in the twenty-first century and claim to adhere to our earliest principles. We must decide who we are. And if that decision is to restore our highest ideals, then major changes must be made in the way we elect our presidents and our members of Congress.

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In light of his comments, insights, and the massive corruption he correctly identifies, worrying about who marries who and who can fly a certain flag pale in comparison. Because in the end, if all we are left with in our democracy is a new type of marriage license and a piece of cloth on a flagpole, at the expense of our economic and political freedom, then who really cares? They are nothing more than small consolation prizes.

As Woodrow Wilson once said: "The government, which was designed for the people, has got into the hands of the bosses and their employers, the special interests. An invisible empire has been set up above the forms of democracy." Never has this quote from a hundred years ago been so right as it is today.

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:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

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