There is a lot going on in the world: Obama and Russiagate findings, Middle East powder keg, the Russian/Ukrainian war, etc. But through all this, the American political class continues to constantly deliver its own special brand of insanity, stupidity, wasteful taxpayer spending, and ineffective government programs:
1)We have previously talked about the great work that the Federal government’s DOGE organization has been doing in identifying and rooting out stupid, wasteful spending of taxpayer wealth. We discussed how $20 million was spent to put on a Sesame Street play in Iraq, how $6 million was spent to encourage tourism in Egypt, how tens of millions of dollars was spent on LGBT activities around the world including funding gender transition surgeries in Guatemala, etc.
While these millions of dollars were flying around the world, millions of Americans continued to be homeless, hungry, in need of medical care, and drug addiction care. And yet Democrats in Congress have been critical of this effort to stop wasteful spending around the world and this effort to rein in reckless spending, made their opposition clear in Congressional hearings.
But as someone once said, “It is better to remain silent and thought ignorant then to speak up and remove all doubt,” advice a Democratic member of Congress, who I will not embarrass should have recently taken:
The Congresswoman was trying to make the point that Americans did not approve of DOGE saving their tax dollars from being spent on nonsense by referencing a public opinion poll..
In fact, she had her staff create a professional and large poster that showed that 67% of those polled opposed DOGE’s efforts, 38% approved DOGE’s efforts, and 5% were undecided.
The problem, and embarrassment, is that these numbers add up to 110% which of course is impossible.
It is tough to take a Congressional member seriously when neither her or her staff can add up three numbers correctly.
2)While the Congresswoman was having serious math and numbers problems, DOGE was continuing to save billions of taxpayer dollars from wasteful spending:
DOGE recently announced another $14.3 billion in taxpayer savings by identifying and axing stupid spending around the world.
One of the contracts that DOGE killed was for a “resilience adviser” in Somalia which cost $850,000.
I have no idea what a resilience advisor does, why he or she would be doing it in Somalia, and who ever thought this was a good idea.
More importantly, which politically connected NGO got that contract and who was their buddy in Congress and the Federal bureaucracy.
Another day and another set of programs that waste billions of American taxpayer dollars every year.
3)As we have mentioned so many times, a very primary responsibility of any government entity is to protect the lives and the property of the citizens they govern. Nothing else matters if the politicians running a government entity cannot perform this basic function.
Of course, the city of Chicago's politicians have failed miserably in this area for years, as we have all too often pointed out. Thousands of city residents are shot every year with hundreds of them dying and city politicians have never figured, or cared how to fix the violence and shootings. And this past July 4th weekend in the city was no different:
At least 55 Chicago residents were shot over the recent Fourth of July weekend.
Six of those shot died from their wounds.
These shootings happened over just a three day period, coming out to about 18 shootings a day and two fatalities everyday.
One of those killed was a 16 year old girl.
According to the Chicago Sun Times, there have already been 202 homicides in the first half of the year, more than one per day.
The Chicago politicians’ failures continue, the inability to protect the lives and property of those they govern.
4)The state of Michigan has thousands of residents that are facing hard times:
33,000 state residents are homeless.
About 3,000 residents die from drug overdoses every year.
Michigan has the 13th highest poverty rate in the country.
About 1.5 million state residents face hunger challenges every day and about 400,000 of them are kids.
The governor of Michigan is Gretchen Whitmer. Recently:
She spent $204,444 on an eight day trip to the United Kingdom and Ireland this past March.
Her eight party travel group stayed at a five star hotel in London, had Sunday High Tea in Dorchester, visited the Royal Automobile Club, had a meal at the Duck and Waffle restaurant on the 40th floor of a London building, and visited parliament, and on average spent over $25,000 a day.
These figures come from the Michigan Economic Development Corp.
One of those in the boondoggle group was the state director for “Rural Agriculture” and Development and another was the director for “Natural Resources.”
Why the directors of state agencies charged with agriculture and nature need to visit England is unknown and makes no sense.
In Ireland, the group met with various entities and also squeezed in time to visit the Guiness Brewery.
The supposed purpose of the trip was: “To build partnerships with new government entities in the United Kingdom and Ireland; to educate entities on Michigan as the top place to do business in the US; advocate for increased investment opportunities and conduct retention visits with existing companies in market who are long-time investors in the state.”
Oh, by the way, Whitmer has also visited Spain, the United Arab Emirates, Taiwan, and Japan in the past two years, with the four trips costing over $600,000.
Now, the governor’s office claims that all of these trips were privately funded,, i.e. no taxpayer dollars were used to jet her around the world. In the meantime, thousands of her residents are homeless, hungry, dying from drug overdoses, etc. Her priorities are pretty lame in light of what she should have been focusing on vs. traveling around the world in the probably vain hope of getting some Spanish company to invest in Michigan.
Rough insanity for today: bad priorities in Michigan, more DOGE cuts to stupid and wasteful spending, a Congressional staff and Congressional member cannot do basic math, and the violence on Chicago streets continues unabated.
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If you agree that we need to deseat every member of Congress for their lack of success and accomplishment, then please consider going to the following petition link to help the cause:
https://www.change.org/p/deseat-congress-reset-freedom
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