August, 2019, Part 2, Political Class Insanity: Declawing Cats In New York, Telling White People To Shut Up and More

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) Let’s start today’s political class insanity up in Albany, New York. Apparently there are no homeless New Yorkers any more that require the attention of the state’s politicians. The state has made sure there are no residents that go hungry every night. The state has made sure that every drug addict gets the medical and substance abuse treatment that they need. The state has no roads, dams, or bridges that are falling down.

This has to be the case since the state legislature has just wrapped a landmark piece of legislation that will become law: in New York state it is now illegal to declaw a cat. Doing a declawing would result in up to a $1,000 fine. Why else would the state’s politicians focus on such a low priority unless the homelessness, hunger, drug addiction, and a crumbling infrastructure problems have been remedied? 

I am sure that if you polled every New York state resident the problem of declawed cats would not crack the top 50, maybe not the top 100 issues facing the residents of that state. And yet that is what politicians are focusing on. Insane priorities.

2) The city of Baltimore is not in good shape. It has a very high crime rate. Its murder rate results in over 300 citizens being murdered every year. And while Chicago may have the most murders every year, Baltimore has the highest murder rate every year. While the national unemployment rate is under 4%, the unemployment rate in Baltimore is still above 5%. The Baltimore poverty rate is almost 24% vs. about 15% for the rest of the country. And according to pest removal service Orkin, Baltimore ranks ninth in the country when it comes to rat infestation.

Given this background, the President has been in a battle of words with Baltimore Congressman Elijah Cummings over the past few weeks. This began after Cummings viciously and nastily attacked those Federal agents along the southern border who are protecting us from illegal entrants to the country, basically doing their jobs by enforcing the laws of the land. Trump rightfully took offense at the attacks on these agents and suggested that Cummings take better care of his own home district rather than worrying about what was going on at the southern border, a district that we just showed was in dire shape.

Given that Elijah Cummings is an African-American, Democrats immediately called Trump a racist for what was clearly not a racist exchange of words. Trump merely pointed out that the citizens of Cummings district are suffering more than most Americans and maybe he should focus on them.

This all resulted in some very bad optics for Democrats and Nancy Pelosi in particular. You see, it appears that the Democrats in Congress recently took a boondoggle trip, at taxpayer expense overseas. They visited Italy and then flew down to the country of Ghana. While in Italy, Nancy Pelosi issued the following statement in support of Cummings: “Elijah Cummings is a champion in the Congress and the country for civil rights and economic justice, a beloved leader in Baltimore, and deeply valued colleague. We all reject racist attacks against him and support his steadfast leadership.”

Two things wrong with this statement, the first of which we already alluded to: his steadfast leadership has resulted Baltimore remaining a criminal and financial mess. But even more pathetic is that Pelosi issued this statement from Venice, Italy where her and her Democratic friends were staying at a five star hotel and dining at the world famous, and very expensive, Harry Cipriani restaurant, all at taxpayer expense. 

This is essentially Pelosi’s Marie Antoinette moment of “let them eat cake,” as she takes time out from her expensive trip, eating at expensive restaurants, staying at expensive hotels, and I am sure flying at expensive rates to say that Cummings is doing a great job while ignoring the realities listed above. The elite in this country continue to get more and more elite and entitled while ignoring the reality of Americans in need. Bon appetit Nancy.

3) A politician’s job should be to represent those that elected them in a dignified and diplomatic manner, serving as a leader to promote harmony and cooperation across all views and opinions in order to arrive at the optimal solution to problems facing the country. Well, maybe that is the way it used to be. 

The Democratic National Committee recently held a gathering for Democrats/liberals who might be good candidates to become the next Democratic National chairperson. One candidate who thought she would be a good person for the job is Sally Boynton Brown, who is currently the executive director of Idaho’s Democratic Party. 

Ms. Brown made the following pitch for the job on what she thinks needs to be done for the Democratic Party [note: my emphasis added]: “My job is to listen and be a voice and shut other white people down when they want to interrupt...We pull people in and they are volunteers. They don’t know anything and then we send them out to have conversations with people, hard conversations. We promote them to chair of a party where they have power and they have no clue what they are doing. We have to, at the DNC, provide training. We have to teach them how to communicate, how to be sensitive and how to shut their mouths if they are white. So I think I made my point.”

And liberals think Trump is racist because he points out the reality that Cummings’ Congressional district is a hellhole? “Shut their mouths if they are white?” I thought that Democrats/liberals were the tolerant ones, the all inclusive, big tent ones, those that cared about everyone? Apparently I was wrong and that American politics, at least from this Democratic official is about shutting [white] people down rather than respecting their opinion, views, and insights.

4) One last observation for today’s insanity. There is an old saying that goes, “Do not ask a question that you do not want an answer to.” Democrats in Congress recently dragged Robert Mueller in front of them in an attempt to find something, anything that they could use to impeach Trump. The Mueller Russian collusion investigation gave them nothing so they desperately hoped that putting him front of Congress might shake something, anything loose that could be grown into impeachment.

Now it is my understanding that before anyone goes in front of Congress, Congressional staff brief, question, help, aid, and prep a witness so that the outcome is pre-determined and Congressional members get the answers they want. But apparently that did not happen here since according to the mainstream media Mueller’s testimony “was a catastrophe” and Mueller was “boring,” “sort of evasive,” “lost at times,” and gave a “shaky performance.”

Apparently Democrats were so desperate to get something on Trump that they violated the very basic tenet of do not ask a question you do not want an answer to: by not doing basic prep work for a simple Congressional hearing they embarrassed themselves, they embarrassed Mueller, and showed again how inept they are by not doing basic research ahead of time. 

Simple staff prep work would have proven that Mueller had nothing and would be an embarrassment to the whole effort. But Lord forbid politicians do anything logical, basic, and smart, as proven by the Mueller hearing disaster.

More insanity to follow.

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:

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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:


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

Putin's Russia, Obama's America: Mirror Images Of Corruption, Cronyism and Waste? Part 4, Corruption of The American Political Sould

Over the past three posts we have been dealing with political class corruption in all of its forms: bribes, kickbacks, cronyism, government bungling, self enrichment, etc. We examined how the cost of the Russian Olympics was more than five times more expensive than forecasted, due mainly to the fact that nothing gets done involving Russian politics without baking in the costs of kickbacks, blackmail, and bribery. 

We compared that cronyism and bribery situation to the Obama administration who gives out the most attractive foreign countries’ ambassadorships not to the best, most experienced State Department diplomats but to those political friends who raised the most money for his election campaigns.

We examined local political corruption with the recent conviction of former New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin on twenty counts of bribery, kickbacks, wire fraud and other corruption offenses.

And finally, yesterday, we looked at just one example of corruption within the disaster known as the economic stimulus program along with the bribery-like behavior of Comcast. Comcast is showering financial support on Congressional members who are likely to have a substantial voice in whether or not Comcast can complete its merger with Time Warner. Such a merger that would significantly enrich the Comcast operation and business.

But political corruption does not always involve the exchange of money for political and business favors. Sometimes corruption is of the soul and ego. Sometimes, with our politicians, it is a sense of entitlement that enriches themselves at the expense of the American taxpayer’s wealth and well being.

This type of corruption came to mind when recent news reports surfaced that the Obamas were going on yet another vacation. And they were not even going together, they were jetting off to separate long weekend vacations. And they were not going down to a beach or golf course in Maryland or Virginia, you know, local, less expensive venues.

The President was jetting off to a three day golf vacation in California. The First Lady was jetting off in a separate government plane to ski country in the Rockies. These vacations come on the heels of a two week luxury vacation the Obama family just took to Hawaii over the Christmas holidays. This followed the African vacation that the family took in mid-2013. 

At last count, the President had played over 160 rounds of golf while in office. Now, the President is entitled to some rest and relaxation, his job is likely the most stressful in the world. But 160 rounds of golf in just five years, that must set a record in Presidential golfing history. 

Now I am sure that some of the President’s supporters are outraged by this observation. But it is so hypocritical that his party peers were so critical of Bush when he took off for stays at his Texas ranch because there are a few major differences:

1) I do not recall Laura Bush jetting off to separate vacations at taxpayer expense while her husband went home to their ranch in Texas.

2) Bush was going to the same place every time, making the cost of security and protection much less than jetting off to different, exotic places, throughout his administration.

3) A lot of the Bush trips to Texas also involved meeting with foreign diplomats in a more relaxed, casual and hopefully better locale than the stress laden Washington D.C. environment. I do not believe that the current President has accomplished a lot of diplomatic business on the fourth green.

[Full disclosure: I have never voted for a Republican for President since I first became eligible to vote in the 1970s. Up until 2010, I had never voted for a Republican for national office in my life. Thus, defending Bush’s vacation behavior is done from a more or less third party, unbiased viewpoint.]

The current political mantra and PR ploy of this President is a nebulous concept called “income equality.” But it rings a little hollow talking about income inequality when the First Family is jetting off around the world to expensive and exotic spots for many, many vacations every year. 

But it is not just the vacations where we see the hypocrisy of the “income equality” issue. At a recent state dinner at the White House, for the leader of France, the First Lady’s dress was widely reported to be worth $12,000. If true, this dress was worth more than the poverty income level for an American living by themselves ($11,670). It was more than half the income level of a family of four living at the income poverty level ($23,850). 

Nancy Reagan (whose husband I also did not vote for) was crucified by the press and Democrats when she went out and purchased new china and silverware for use at important White House functions because the existing china and silverware was reportedly old and an embarrassment. No such outcry about $12,000 dresses was raised today. At least the new china and silverware had a useful life of more than one night.

Going on, the President recently had yet another photo op with rich athletes. The current NBA champs, the Miami Heat, visited the White House recently to be honored by this President. I would imagine every member of that team is a millionaire and such, they all have no problem with income equality issues in their lives.

Rather than constantly hanging with pampered millionaires via the numerous photo ops this administration seems to conduct, it would be nice if just once this President hung out with some people at a homeless shelter or a soup kitchen to show a little real compassion for those where there really is an income equality issue. 

Rather than playing so much golf at plush locations around the country, it would be a welcome surprise if he actually found the time and fortitude to reorganize the many ineffective government training programs so that those programs actually made a difference in people’s ability to get a job. That would certainly be more helpful for income equality than another round of golf or another exotic vacation or another photo op with rich athletes.

Rather than vacationing nowhere near where the heart of America lives, works, and vacations, it would be a welcome change if he actually met with some real American dealing with real problems, problems that do not involve choosing what country club to join, what $12,000 dress to where, or what multi-million dollar pro sport contract to sign.

We have over 20 million Americans in this country who are unemployed, under employed, or who have become too discouraged to even look for employment. 

We have a record number of people who have been in the long term unemployed category for a record length of time. 

We have almost 50 million Americans who receive food assistance from the Federal government to eat everyday. 

We have seen median household incomes continue to decrease every year since the end of the recession.

We have thousands of veterans who served this country and who need our help with emotional and physical wounds and needs but who never seem to get a visit or visible support from this President.

Yes, corruption does not just involve bribery, kickbacks, cronyism, the selling of ambassadorships, etc. It can also involve the corruption of the soul and ego. 

And when any Presidential administration takes on the aura of Marie Antoinette’s “let them eat cake attitude,” when golf vacations, Hawaiian vacations, African vacations, hanging with rich athletes, and $12,000 dresses take precedent over our hungry, our unemployed, our veterans, and our diminishing income levels and lives, then the corruption cycle within a political class is complete: from bribery to kickbacks to cronyism to soulless self indulgence.

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

Washington's "Hunger Games" Approach To Government, Part 1: Rich In Washington, Poor Everywhere Else

One of our most popular posts of all times is at the following link:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2011/04/marie-antoinette-and-arrogance-of-our.html

It discussed a number of examples where members of the Washington political class were condescending, arrogant, and downright rude to their constituents. It was as if we were reliving the Marie Antoinette era where the ruling class could not care less about the challenges, welfare, and issues facing the ordinary citizens. They were more interested in their own comfort and self enrichment, making them so out of touch that when they were told their citizens had no bread to eat their haughty response was to let them eat cake.
Our political class in D.C. is not much different:

• Their annual salaries of over $170,000 a year put them in the top 3-4% of all earners in this country but they work less than half a year in session or with their constituents.
• Their lavish benefits add about another $100,000 to their annual compensation package.
• House of Representative members get the American taxpayer to lease a car for them while in office (and what they lease for themselves are not small compact cars).
• They have large staffs that look after their every need while they reside in extremely nice offices.
• Their retirement benefits are embarrassingly lavish for embarrassingly little work.
• Congressional rules allow them to participate in private company IPOs as insiders, which usually result in very profitable investments in very short timeframes.
• Up until recently, they were allowed to privately trade stocks in their personal investment portfolios which leveraged insider government information they knew but most of the world did not know.
• They have rigged their pay processes to automatically guarantee them an annual pay raise regardless of how poorly they performed their jobs during the year.

Yes, the political class has made life very good for themselves. However, in the process, they have made life very good for others that they interact with in their duties as a politician. Recent news reports depressingly illustrate how America is turning into the “Hunger Games” scenario.

In the “Hunger Games” books there is a very, very small, elitist set of people in the seat of power, far away from the common folks, both in geography and life style and options. The elitists have manipulated their government so that vast amounts of taxpayer wealth flows to this seat of power to the detriment of the rest of the country. Those in the seat of power enjoy self enrichment, status, pomposity, and gluttony, in its many forms, all on the backs and hard efforts of the rest of the citizens out in the country and hinterlands.

Let’s start with the first research report from Reuters that was summarized on their website on December 18, 2012. The details of their analysis include the following facts and trends, listing in no particular order of insult:

• The top 5% of households in Washington, D.C., had average incomes over $500,000 in 2011, while the bottom 20% earned less than $9,500 - a ratio of 54 to 1.
• This ratio is up from 39 to 1 just twenty years ago and is higher than the ratio in all 50 states and all but two major cities.
• The article observes that not only does the Federal government redistribute wealth to lower income people but it also redistributes wealth up to wealthy people, that mostly involves themselves and those that come to the political class for favors.
• In 2010, the Federal government directed $83.5 billion to contractors, lobbyists and lawyers just in the District of Columbia area, mostly as a result of our bloated defense budget.
• Even when taking inflation into account, this $83.5 billion is an increase of more than 300% since 1989.
• With the exception of the state government budgets in California and Texas, this locally distributed $83.5 billion is larger than each of the other 48 state government budgets.
• Private industry and their lobbyists spent more than $3 billion on lobbying Washington politicians to get their piece of the $83.5 billion.
• This lobbying is nearly double what it was just ten years ago.
• According to the 2010 Census, 10 of the capital's surrounding counties place in the top 20 counties across the country when measuring median household income, this is up from six counties in 1990. We can safely assume that most of this wealth has been generated in some shape or form from the Federal budget process and growth.
• But not everyone in the greater D.C. has been getting wealthier since 1990, just the wealthy are getting wealthier, as we see from the following Reuters graph (double click on the graph for a larger view):

　

　　
　

• Direct spending by the Federal government accounts for 40% of the D.C. metro area’s $425 billion-a-year economy.
• About 15% every dollar from the entire Federal procurement budget stays in or around the D.C. area even though the area accounts for only 2% of the national population: "We're seeing an enormous transfer of wealth from taxpayers to the Washington economy," said Steve Fuller, director of the Center for Regional Analysis at George Mason University.
• Since 1990, five of the top 10 major defense contractors have moved their headquarters to the Washington area, where the money is to be lobbied and procured.
• The greater Washington area has produced 385 of the nation's fastest-growing small- and medium-sized companies since 2000, more than any other metropolitan area in the country: "It's the rich getting richer phenomenon," said Dane Stangler, the Kauffman's Foundation director of research. "Because Washington has a concentration of high-growth companies, that attracts higher-skilled people to work there, which will attract more companies."
• While the average household income in the U.S. has fallen below $50,000, in Washington, area workers with incomes above $100,000 rose to 22% of the workforce, up from 14% in 1990.
• In addition, there are 320,000 Federal jobs in the Washington area and within the actual District of Columbia, 55% of those jobs pay $100,000 or more a year.
• How much taxpayer wealth is at stake in the D.C. area can be measured, to a degree, by lobbyist activity: 13,000 lobbyists registered with the Federal government last year and reported $3.3 billion in fees, about $260,000 per lobbyist; that’s 22% more lobbyists and 37% more inflation-adjusted revenue per lobbyist than in 1998.
• The number of lawyers in the greater D.C. metro has jumped 44% since, twice the national rate, to 41,000 since 1999.
• The D.C. area lawyer annual average income, adjusted for inflation, has risen 35% in that timeframe to $156,000.
• The number of organizations with a political presence in D.C, has more than doubled between 1981 and 2006 to nearly 14,000, according to a study by political scientists Kay L. Schlozman, Sidney Verba and Henry E. Brady.

The entire Reuters article, with the associated data sources for the stats listed above can be found at:


http://www.reuters.com/subjects/income-inequality/washington

Lots of depressing statistics, but really one main message: the growth of the Federal government has spawned obscene growth in Washington D.C. economy that is orders of magnitudes more than the growth of the economy in the rest of the country. The political class has set themselves up as auctioneers of our taxpayer wealth to the highest bidders and those that benefit from these oversized, bloated government budgets have migrated to this seat of power in D.C.

Now, this elitist class of people, the Marie Antoinette’s of our time, might be tolerable if they produced resolutions to the major problems facing America. But, alas, they have been too busy eating their own cake.

We have gone decades without resolving any of our major issues: our lost war on drugs, our leaky borders, our lack of an illegal immigration strategy, our escalating health care costs, our failing public schools, our skyrocketing national debt, our lack of a national energy plan and strategy, etc. We have paid a lot of money for little results.

We will continue this “Hunger Games” discussion tomorrow and beyond, much to the chagrin of us outside of the D.C. Beltway of power.

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:

http://www.reason.com/
http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w