The United Nations: An International Political Class Just as Useless As The American Political Class

For years we have pointed out how corrupt, inefficient, ineffective and expensive the Federal government is. It wastes money on stupid projects and priorities, never successfully resolves major issues facing Americans, and continues to enrich members of Congress, the executive branch and Federal bureaucracy. And all the while incurring over $21 TRILLION in national debt, a debt load that our kids and grandkids will be paying back for decades.

But there is also no doubt that the international version of the Federal government, the United Nations, can be just as ineffective and expensive than the American political class in Washington. A recent article by Elliot Kaufman in the Wall Street Journal pointed out how bad the United Nations is:

• Over time, some of the worst human rights violating nations, e.g. Saudi Arabia (which suppresses women’s rights), Venezuela (an oppressive regime whose citizens are literally starving to death), China (a country that locks up Christians and Muslims adherents who dare to speak out) , and Pakistan have headed up the UN Human Rights Council.
• Although the World Economic Forum ranks Iran 140th out of 144 nations when it comes to “parity between the sexes,” the UN saw it fit to allow Iran to be on the the board of the UN organization “dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women.”
• A World Conference Against Racism degenerated into an anti-Israel hatefest which eventually led to the UN Human Rights Council issuing 78 anti-Israel resolutions despite Israel being one of the most modern in the world when it comes to women’s rights, equality, and democracy.
• The UN gave Syria a leadership role on the Special Committee on Decolonization despite Syria’s leader and government using chemical warfare to to kill its own citizens and repeated the same mistake in both 2016 and 2018.
• The UN gave departed Cuban leader Fidel Castro a minute of silent respect when he died even though he ran an oppressive and deadly dictatorship for decades, imprisoning and killing any and all Cuban dissidents.

But it is not just these high level examples of bureaucracy insanity that make the UN an embarrassment. Try to come up with just one example where the UN helped prevent violence and wars. Not in Serbia, not in Rwanda, not in Syria, not in Korea, nowhere. Name a country where it stepped in to force an oppressive government grant more freedom and to respect and take better care of its citizens, not in Iran, not in Saudi Arabia, not in China, not in Syria, nowhere. Name a drug cartel or international drug running crime syndicate it has taken apart, never happened. 

As we have pointed out many times, Einstein once said that, “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” Nowhere is this more true than the United Nations, an international greedy and self entitled political class. It is a useless and expensive taxpayer funded entity that never gets anything done, it deserves to die and put the taxpayer funding to better use.

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

April, 2016, Part 2, By The Numbers: More Weapons To The MIddle East, More Hassles To Filing Taxes, and More Bad Priorities From the Obama Administration

On a periodic basis we do some posts that fall under the theme of “by the numbers.” Rather than trust what the American political tells us about reality, we like to examine the real numbers and the real reality in the world to understand what is actually going on. Relying on politicians, and their cohorts in the media, to tell us what is reality is always a sucker bet. They have their own agendas and goals, usually centering around their needs and self-enrichment. So we need to look at the reality of the numbers to determine what is really going on.

Previous analyses of “by the numbers” can be accessed by entering the phrase in the search box above. This is the third and final post this month where we look at the numbers to truly find out how good, not likely, or bad, most likely, the American political class is doing in managing our tax dollars, protecting our freedoms, and resolving major issues that affect all of us. 

1) Pew Research recently completely an interesting and involved study to determine what issues are most important to Americans today, providing a priority list of things that they would want the Washington political class to address most heavily. As you will see, as usual, Washington in general and Obama specifically, are very much out of step with what are most important and worrisome issues to Americans today.

Pew gave the poll participants a list of 18 issues facing the country today and asked them to choose which ones they felt should be a top priority of Obama and his administration. The results show a major disconnect:

• Gun policy was 16th out of 18 as far as being a priority even though Obama has been obsessing about shredding the Second Amendment rights of Americans.
• Climate change was only 17th out of 18 even though climate change is another obsession of Obama.
• Global trade ranked dead last, 18th, even though Obama has been pushing hard for his new Pacific trade pact to be approved.
• The economy was the number one issue with a whopping 75% of poll participants saying Obama should focus on that.
• Unfortunately, Obama has provided no new economic plans, thoughts, or focus on the economy for years and even when he did have economic thoughts and strategies earlier in his term, e.g. his economic stimulus program, they were failures, resulting in persistent high real unemployment, anemic economic growth, stagnant wages and incomes, and over 45 million Americans on food stamps for years.
• Dealing with immigration has increased as a priority by 11% since Obama took office, the highest increase of any priority, but despite this growing concern, illegal immigration continues unabated along with the drug running, human trafficking, and criminal elements that go with it.
• The priority to strengthen the military has gone up 8% since Obama took office but our overall military fighting capability has deteriorated during Obama’s Presidency.
• Protecting the environment, another Obama favorite, has dropped 5% as a priority with Americans since Obama came into office.
• 51% of the poll’s participants think that Obama’s failures will outweigh his accomplishments and only 39% think his accomplishments will outweigh his failures.
• Independent voters are even more pessimistic about his failures and accomplishments with a 16 point difference between the two. 

Very telling numbers. A Presidency and political class that work on things that are irrelevant or much less of a priority to the majority of Americans and ignore issues that are of the highest priority to Americans. Maybe that is why nothing ever gets resolved by Washington these days and over the past couple of decades. Today’s American politicians do not know how to resolve the highest priority problems facing Americans so they work on stuff that has no answer just to look like they are working on something, e.g. rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Pathetic leadership and know how. The numbers do not lie.

2) Since most of us just got done paying our taxes to the Federal government, consider some facts and numbers that show how perverted our current tax code is, as explained in an article in Reason magazine by Veronique de Rugy:

• On average, each American family had to expend 8 hours and $120 to file their tax personal returns.
• This translates into 1.35 billion wasted hours just filing tax returns. 
• The compliance cost to the country, Americans, and our economy to file those non-business tax returns is over $20 billion a year.
• 45.3% of Americans do not pay anything in Federal income taxes. Were you in that 45.3% or were you the one of the 54.7% of Americans who actually paid real money to the Federal government while many of your neighbors paid nothing?
• The top 1% of earners in this country paid a whopping 37% of all Federal income tax while the top 10% paid 70% of all Federal income taxes.

A few observations relative to this idiocy:

• How many needy Americans could be helped if some of those 1.35 billion hours could be funneled into volunteer work to help the needy, hungry and homeless in this country rather than wasting time doing tax returns?
• How many needy Americans would be helped if that $20 billion could be funneled into the needs of the needy, hungry, and homeless in this country rather than wasting time paying for tax returns to be done?
• Given that almost half of all Americans do not pay anything in Federal income taxes, it is not a surprise that they do not get excited when the American political class wastes Federal tax money on stupid and inane projects and programs, they have no stake in making sure that Congress and the President are spending tax money efficiently and effectively, none of that wasted money is theirs.
• Given that record numbers of Americans are leaving the country every year and renouncing their citizenship and the likelihood that those leaving are part of the top 1% or top 10% of earners, how long will it take for the Federal government raises taxes on EVERYONE to compensate for the high earners leaving the country forever?

Scary questions and results from a scary, cumbersome, and stupid tax code, as proven by the numbers.

3) One last set of numbers for today. When Obama came into office, there was significant hope across the MIddle East and the World that he would help to finally bring peace to the region. But consider some numbers from the March 4, 2016 issue of The Week magazine:

• A huge weapons buildup is current underway in the Middle East.
• Saudi Arabia is now the second largest arms and weapons importer inthe world behind only India.
• Annual Saudi and Qatar arms purchases are up an amazing 275% since 2011.
• Weapons imports by Egypt and the United Arab Emirates are up 35% since 2011.
• Iran is ramping up its weapons purchases, mostly from Russia.
• But despite that hope of peace from Obama early in his term, the United States is still by far the world’s largest weapons and arms exporter in the world, accounting for one third of all weapons sales.

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. Obama is not better than all previous Presidents, the numbers showing that this country is still the nation most responsible for arming the rest of the world, a very dangerous world.

That will do it for the numbers today. America making the world a more dangerous place, the IRS and the U.S. tax code making life more miserable for Americans, and Obama more out of touch with what is important to Americans, the numbers do no lie. More depressing numbers tomorrow.

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

Why The Iran Nuclear Weapons Deal Stinks

As most concerned Americans know, President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry reached a tentative agreement with the Iranian government several months ago to theoretically halt the march of the Iranians to becoming a nuclear arms power. In the next few weeks, Congress will debate and then vote on whether to approve the deal. 

Rather than trying to sell the deal to the American people on its merits and upsides, and perhaps showing some leadership in the process, this administration has continued its long established ways of demeaning, ridiculing, and name calling those that have concerns or doubts about the deal. 

The President has called those that oppose the deal "crazies" even though the majority of Americans who have an opinion about the deal do not want it approved. Which is just the typical condescending attitude that this President has had against anyone who dares disagree with him. John Kerry has been out of sight and out of mind the past few weeks, obviously not trying to sell the deal to America either.

As a result, a number of thoughtful people have put forth, in very concise, easily understandable ways, why this is a bad deal. Why the President has not addressed these points  rather than just say they are wrong and to blindly trust him, is another example of the absence of leadership skills of this Presidency.

Judge and comment for yourself after reading the following rebuttals to the proposed deal. If you believe that these rebuttals are an accurate description of reality of the deal and worry of the major consequences such a putrid deal will do the the Middle East and our own security, I strongly suggest that you call your Congressional reps right away and deal them to reject the deal. 

If you think that the President can be trusted and that he is not shopping for a foreign policy legacy win, i.e. he will do anything to make it look like a winning deal just to enhance his legacy, then you can sit back and watch a new nuclear arms race unfold in the Middle East, watch Iran hype up its terrorism activities across the world, and watch Iran work on how to put its eventual nuclear weapons on the tip of an intercontinental missile. And the President calls us that oppose this deal the crazies.

The first set of logical objections to this deal come from the website of former Congressman Allen West:

1. Iran is the number one state sponsor of Islamic terrorism and has not evidenced any desire to curtail their activities. In fact, given the Ayatollah’s comments, sounds to me like they want to ratchet it up.

2. The JCPOA [the tentative deal] does not gradually relieve economic sanctions against Iran; it does so immediately to the tune of $115 billion in unfrozen assets released to the number one sponsor of Islamic terrorism.

3. In year five, the JCPOA allows the U.N. ban on conventional weapons for Iran to expire, which means the number one state sponsor of Islamic terrorism can legally buy and sell arms. Iran, however, has already entered into talks with Russia and China to purchase new aerial refueling tankers and fighter jets, and the Chinese are seeking an exchange of the fighter jets for oil. And incidentally, General Qassem Suleimani, who heads the Iranian Quds Force – a designated terrorist organization – violated an international travel ban by going to Russia to meet with their defense minister and Russian president Vladimir Putin.

4. In year eight, the JCPOA lifts the U.N. weapons ban on ballistic missiles for Iran, a country where the leadership chants “Death to Israel” and “Death to America.”

5. In year ten, Iran can return its centrifuges to full operational capability and enrich uranium. In the meantime, Iran has the authority to do its own inspections, and the original requirement of immediate, “no notification” inspections has been replaced with a 24-day advance notification process.

6. Finally, in year fifteen, the number one state sponsor of Islamic terrorism is allowed to build new nuclear reactors. We’re not stopping them; merely delaying.

The second source debunking the details of the deal come from Michaela Dodge writing for the Heritage Foundation. She specializes in missile defense, nuclear weapons modernization and arms control as policy analyst for defense and strategic policy in The Heritage Foundation’s Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies. Her recent writings include the following top line realities:

• Recently, over 900 rabbis formally announced their opposition to the deal.
• Almost 200 retired U.S. generals and admirals signed a joint letter urging Congress to reject the deal while the White House could only round up 30 former military leaders to support the deal.
• Even though the majority of Americans and Israelis polled are in favor of a diplomatic answer to the Iranian problem, the majority of them do not want THIS deal to be the diplomatic answer.

She then goes on to rebut specific points of the deal, much like Mr. West did above, providing concrete examples of why this is a bad deal:

1) “This deal blocks every pathway Iran might take to obtain a nuclear weapon.” This statement is untrue. A piece of paper cannot stop a determined country from obtaining a nuclear weapon. The cash-strapped regime in North Korea is a great example. 

To make matters worse, the deal does not dismantle Iran’s uranium enrichment infrastructure, which was developed in defiance of Iran’s international obligations.

The deal effectively rewards years of Iran’s violations of its international obligations with billions of dollars to fund terrorism and lifts sanctions on advanced technologies and materials usable in Iran’s nuclear program, including Tehran’s ballistic missile program.

The deal even opens a path for Iran to buy functioning parts of a nuclear weapon.

2) “It ensures that centrifuges are removed except for a handful.” Usually, a handful does not mean thousands, as is the case with the number of Iranian centrifuges the deal leaves untouched.

Additionally, the deal allows Iran to continue research and development of more advanced types of centrifuges, including letting Iran operate them by hundreds. None of the centrifuges will be destroyed. And they are only a part of the problem. Maintaining skilled people who know how to manage the centrifuges is just as serious.

Should Iran decide that the deal is no longer in its interest, it will be in an excellent position to restore its capabilities fast.

The United States will not be able to impose a sanctions regime that would be as rigorous as the existing regime, which is a result of years of labor and hundreds of trips of U.S. officials to foreign banks.

Once cash starts flowing, it will be immensely difficult to re-impose these sanctions. Sanctions relief is front-loaded, further reducing Iran’s incentive to not follow through with all its obligations.
3) “But this deal does not rely on trust. It relies on verification.” How will members of Congress know if Iran is cheating, let alone the American people, since the administration has failed to provide documents outlining details of verification? In fact, neither Secretary of State John Kerry nor Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz has read these documents.

Just last week, it became clear that Iran will be allowed to use its own inspectors to investigate sites suspected of conducting nuclear weapon work. This is akin to letting a fox guard a chicken coop. The verification regime is particularly weak when it comes to undeclared/covert activities and activities that do not involve radioactive material.

Iran can hold up inspectors for months and will be provided information about where covert activities are occurring, making it easier to cover them.

Iran has been lying, cheating, and covering up its nuclear activities for years. Americans and the International Atomic Energy Agency, responsible for deal’s verification, have been surprised more than once in the past regarding Iran’s illicit nuclear activities.
4) “We are not giving away anything in this deal in terms of our capacity to respond if they chose to cheat.” Obama will be putting future American presidents in a tough position.

This is because Iran will be able to spend billions of dollars on terrorist activities—and the United States and allies will be on the receiving end of these activities. Tehran will be able to obtain advanced weaponry from Russia and China, certainly complicating U.S. options should Iran decide to cheat.

A couple of points of emphasis to add unto the points made above:

• North Korea became a dangerous nuclear power despite having virtually no economy and being one of the poorest nations in the world. Imagine how much easier it will be for Iran to become a nuclear power once we give it over $100 billion to spend as it pleases.
• Effective economic sanctions will never be reimposed since China and Russia, two of the five members of the United Nations Security Council will not allow it since they will benefit economically from the deal and politically in their quest to grow their power and influence at the expense of the United States.
• The Obama/Kerry negotiating team was so weak that they could not even negotiate the release of four American citizens being held in Iranian jails despite giving the Iranians over $100 billion in sanctions relief. This point alone establishes how poorly the U.S. negotiated for this deal.
• News reports have stated that the Saudis are already in the market to purchase nuclear weapons, lord knows they have enough money to do so, likely buying their nuclear weapons technology from the Pakistanis, because of how threatened they feel about this deal.
• Does anyone really think the the North Koreans and the Iranians care about and will respect an eight year ban on selling the Iranians missile technology? News reports are already circulating that the North Koreans and Iranians are already in negotiations for the selling and buying of long range missile technology.
• Why would any good negotiator make a deal with an opponent while that opponent continues to threaten death to the the negotiator's interests? Despite the deal, Iranian citizens and high ranking government officials continually still go on record to vow "Death to America" and "Death To Israel?" And Obama wants to give them $100 billion to spend as they like? Insanity.
• And finally, given this President's track record of lies and deceptions, who can believe anything he says? In fact, if not for a lucky happenstance, we would not know that there are at least two secret agreements that came out of the negotiations that Obama and Kerry had no intention of sharing with Congress or the American people event though the were legally required to so. 

I once worked for a boss who had the following great advice: never be so in love with a deal that you cannot walk away from it. This is advice that Obama and Kerry should have used but did not. In their blind haste to get a deal done, any deal done, to build any kind of legacy, they were weak, anemic negotiators vs. the Iranians, bad salesman of the deal to the world and America, and probably have lied about the untold downsides of the deal. Strike one, strike two, strike three.

This is a bad deal for America, a bad deal for the world, a bad deal for humanity. Call your Congress men and women and them to kill this deal and go for a real diplomatic solution, not a politician's solution. And stopp calling Americans crazies, it is so un-Presidential...and this case, plain wrong.

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

June, 2015, Politicians Say The Darndest Things: Still Delusional, Still Out Of Touch With Reality

Ever so often we run a series of posts under the theme, “Politicians say the darndest things.” It is a parody of an old television show, “House Party,” where host Art Linkletter would ask simple questions of young kids and wait for their often funny responses. This segment of his show was called “Kids Say The Darndest Things.” 

Unfortunately when kids say silly or dumb things, it is funny. When politicians say silly or dumb things, there are usually serious ramifications across the land that often involve stupid laws, wasteful spending, self delusion of a politician’s intelligence or abilities, or a continued lack of faith that today’s politicians are smart enough to get anything right.

So let’s take a look at the latest darndest things that American politicians are saying today:

1) “People don’t remember, but when I came into office, the United States in world opinion ranked below China and just barely above Russia, and today once again, the United States is the most respected country on earth.” Barack Obama. As is often the case, when a politician says something you recall the old saying, “you cannot make this stuff up.” Are you kidding me, more respected, most respected? Consider the following realities in the real world and not in his head:

• Putin and Russia respected him so much that they marched into a neighboring country without fear, the Ukraine, and have set up a puppet government loyal to Russia.
• China respected him so much that they are creating man made islands across the Pacific Ocean and daring the anyone, including Obama, to stop them from claiming that those islands give them territorial rights over much of the Pacific and much of the world’s shipping lanes.
• When Obama invited the six leaders of Persian Gulf countries to attend a Camp David summit he was hosting, only two leaders decided to attend and one of the non-attendees decided that a horse show in England was more worthy of his time than a summit with Obama.
• For the first time in decades, Egypt is using Russia as a source of weapons vs. once being exclusively a U.S. supplied military.
• The President of Brazil blew off a state dinner at the Obama White House as a protest against the Obama administration spying on her and her government.
• Despite U.S. protests, Saudi Arabia is reportedly in negotiation with Pakistan to purchase nuclear weapons from that country if the U.S. folds in its negotiations with Iran.
• Israel is now working with Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations against a common enemy, the nation of Iran, leaving the U.S. and Obama out of that equation.
• The U.S. asked Arab countries not to get militarily involved in the Libyan disaster after which some of those countries started bombing terrorist positions within Libya.
• Iran’s leadership often and openingly mocks the Obama administration and right now seems to be taking it to the cleaners in its nuclear arms discussions.

Does not seem like Obama and his administration is getting a lot of love and respect around the world, despite him saying the darndest thing.

2) “You know, I think I am the closest thing to a Jew that has ever sat in this office. For people to say that I am anti-Israel, or, even worse, anti-Semitic, it hurts.” Barack Obama. Really, the closest thing to being a Jew? Again, delusional on so many planes:

• Obama has openly stated that Israel should return to its 1867 borders, a geographic step that would ensure its annihilation, given the missile technology that has developed since 1967. 
• Obama has dissed the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu more than once by not taking a meeting with him even when the Prime MInister was in the U.S.
• Obama dispatched, probably illegally, political operatives into Israel prior to the last Israeli national election to help prevent a Netanyahu reelection.
• Obama has had a long and strong affiliation with the Muslim Brotherhood, a devout enemy of Israel.

Delusional and preposterous to think that this President is more of Jew than any other President.

3) "I think sometimes people want to be in public service just because they like seeing their name up in lights; they like being important And that's a bad reason to go into politics; you should be like an actress or a singer, or make a lot of money." Barack Obama. This from the current narcissist in chief in the White House. A President who gave a speech at the funeral of Senator Daniel Inouye but ended up mentioning his own self more than the late Senator. A President whose portrait in the White House is larger than any other Presidential portrait. A President who disrespected Neil Armstrong by displaying a picture of himself looking up to the skies in his Armstrong comments on the astronaut's death.

4) “I say to every Israeli: Today we have the ability to stop them if they decided to move quickly to a bomb. And I absolutely guarantee that in the future we will have the ability to know what they’re doing, so that we can still stop them if they decided to move to a bomb.” John Kerry. Of all the quotes we will go over in this post, this one is the most idiotic. 

First of all, the Iranians have already publicly stated that they will not sign an agreement if it involves inspections and searches for nuclear weapon research and manufacturing on their military bases. So if they get such a condition in any agreement, all they have to do is do move all of their nuclear weapons work on military bases. In which case Kerry’s “guarantee” is nothing but hot air. The U.S. could not stop India, Pakistan or North Korea from getting nuclear weapons, and will not be able to stop Saudi Arabia from getting them from Pakistan, but somehow Kerry thinks the U.S. can stop the nut jobs running Iran from getting nuclear weapons? 

No way Kerry has “the ability to stop them [Iran]” or can ”absolutely guarantee” they “know what they are doing.” This is the darndest thing and most delusional quote of the whole post.

5) ”I said earlier that when we celebrated Robert Kennedy’s 50th anniversary of his swearing in 2011, people said that was the golden age for the United States Department of Justice. Well, I think 50 years from now, maybe even sooner than that, people will look at the work you all did and say this was another golden age.” Eric Holder. This was part of the speech Holder gave when he stepped down as the U.S. Attorney General.

He obviously has a different definition of “golden age” than I do since during his tenure as the top law enforcement official in the country:

• He allowed the illegal Fast and Furious operation to go on, breaking both international and domestic law, getting dozens if not hundreds of innocent people killed with U.S. weapons he sanctioned and then covered up the illegalities from Congressional investigators.
• He allowed the IRS to destroy emails and other documents, clear violations of Federal law.
• He allowed the IRS to harass and impede the First Amendment rights of citizens and organizations that held contrary views of this administration.
• He refused to enforce the DOMA legislation which was the law of the land at that time.
• He made little or no effort, and had little or no success, to prosecute criminals that steal upwards of $200 billion a year from Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, food stamps, and other Federal programs.
• He threw the full weight of the Justice Department into investigations of the deaths of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown but gave no effort to investigate the murders of white victims by black police officers or black perpetrators.

Yep, he and I both have a different definition of “golden age.”

That will do it for this rendition of “politicians say the darndest things.” A lawless attorney general who thinks he presided over a golden age of law enforcement, a clueless Secretary of State who thinks the Iranians are going to allow him to inspect anything he wants, and a delusional President who thinks he has been a friend to Israel, a humble public servant, and who has led the country to respectability in the eyes of the world. Politicians do indeed say the darndest, and most idiotic things, yet believing their own insanity at the same time.

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

May, 2015, Obama Administration Foreign Affairs Failure Update

We have made it clear when writing this blog that we are not fans of just about anyone currently involved in the American political class. And that certainly includes our current President. Never has someone been so highly thought of and so much expected of coming into the White House and never has anyone disappointed us so much with their failed performance in that job.

To get a sense of how much of a failure this administration has been over the past six years, just enter the phrase, “obama administration failure” in the search box above. You will then see a series of past posts where we document the dozens of failures.

Just last month we did a series of failure posts and in one of them we focused on foreign affairs failures. That post can be accessed at:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2015/04/meet-new-boss-same-as-old-boss-or.html

It was not a pretty post relative to the numerous times this administration has failed to develop and implement a coherent, integrated foreign affairs strategy. Unfortunately, just a few short weeks after that post went live, today we have to update it with another five foreign affairs disasters, from the dangerous to the mundane but embarrassing, that have happened since the post referenced above. That is how inept this administration and Washington in general has become.

1) The United States used to be the most powerful and respected nation in the world. Although you can make the case that it is still the most powerful along several dimensions, it is doubtful it is still the most respected. This reality was recently driven home when four Persian Gulf state nations, supposed allies of the U.S., decided not to send their most powerful leader to an upcoming summit of Persian states, hosted by the Obama administration. 

According to Fox News: “The White House was scrambling Monday to put a positive face on an upcoming summit of Persian Gulf states after learning leaders from four of the six invited nations are expected to skip. While those nations are still sending representatives to the summit being hosted by President Obama later this week at Camp David, the absence of crucial heads of state — notably, Saudi Arabia’s new king — could present an awkward situation for the administration.”

It is a summit for Persian Gulf states but two thirds of them decided it was not worth sending their top leader and office holder to the summit. Not sure this would have happened when the U.S. was respected around the world but it sure is happening now. Obviously, these leaders either thought they had better things to do than to listen to the President or they were sending a not so subtle message that Obama was getting much too cozy with their Gulf enemy, Iran, especially relative to the nuclear weapons that country is trying to develop.

In either case, this is a huge diplomatic snub to the this administration no matter how vigorously the administration’s spokespeople try to spin it.

2) And the President did not help matters much at all with the Saudis when he made two huge mistakes recently at a White House meeting with two powerful Saudi crown princes. Now, keep in mind that this administration has been in place for over six years. The following diplomatic failure cannot be attributed to just getting into power and learning on the job. The job learning should have been learned years ago from a diplomatic perspective.

So what happened at the White House meeting? Unbelievably, Obama screwed the deputy crown prince's name and also the name of the king who helped build America's relationship with Saudi Arabia, King Abdul Aziz ibn Saud. Specifically:

• Mistake #1: The deputy crown prince's name is actually Mohammed bin Salman (bin means son of in Arabic); his father's name is Salman.
• Mistake #2: The King whom President Obama called King Faisal is actually King Abdul Aziz ibn Saud, who met with Roosevelt. That king's son was named Faisal.

This administration cannot even get basic names right and somehow we expect our allies in the Middle East to trust this Presidential administration on such topics as nuclear weapon development in Iran. According to Elliott Abrams of the Council on Foreign Relations: Getting the names wrong "will deepen the sense in the Gulf and the wider Middle East that the president of the United States does not know what is doing in their region." 

Certainly cannot disagree with Mr. Abrams. 

3) Let’s stay with the Saudis and the Obama administration's total diplomatic failure with this country. One theory is that if Obama signs off on a nuclear arms deal with Iran that paves the way, either in perception terms or in reality, to get nuclear weapons, then other Gulf nations, especially Saudi Arabia, will follow suit and develop their own nuclear weapons programs to protect themselves and their interests. 

But that might be a faulty logic flow but for reasons that were not obvious up until now. According to some credible news reports, rather than set up research programs to develop nuclear weapons in response to an Obama/Iran deal, the Saudis have decided that they do not need to develop their own nuclear weapons capability. They simply have already gone out and bought nuclear weapons from Pakistan.

According to the BBC and the Times of Israel: “Saudi Arabia may be prepared to field nuclear bombs it has purchased from Pakistan in response to Iran’s alleged military nuclear program, and may already have deployed missile systems capable of delivering the bombs, the BBC reported on Wednesday. According to Mark Urban, diplomatic and defense editor for the BBC’s Newsnight, there are suggestions that the Saudis have paid for a number of nuclear weapons that are ready and waiting in Pakistan. If the reports are accurate, the kingdom could have atomic weapons on its missiles even before Iran has that capability. Urban said it was an assessment shared by the former head of the IDF’s head of intelligence, Amos Yadlin, and cited comments Yadlin made to that effect at a conference in Sweden last month. “The Saudis will not wait one month,” Yadlin reportedly said. “They already paid for the bomb, they will go to Pakistan and bring what they need to bring.”

Great, Obama sets out to prevent Iran from going nuclear and possibly ends up forcing the Saudis to buy their way into the nuclear weapons club while he paves the way for the Iranians to develop their way into the nuclear weapons club. No way anyone in this administration can spin this evolving development into anything but incompetence.

4) Let’s move away from the Middle East because recent foreign affairs failures of this administration are not confined to that geographic area. It appears that two long time members of the nuclear weapons club, Russia and China, are now getting friendly with each other, a development that cannot be good for U.S. interests, militarily, economically, or strategically.

Specifically, China and Russia for possibly the first time ever,have decided to hold joint naval military drills. And they will conduct these drills in the Mediterranean Sea, right on the doorstep of NATO nations, not in some far away Far East location. The Chinese are sending two warships to participate in the drills and will dock them at the Russian port of Novorossiysk, the first time ever that Chinese war ships have entered a Russian military base.

Thus, after decades of cold and distant relationship between Russia and China, the failed foreign affairs strategy abilities of the Obama administration has been able to drive together two nations that usually had nothing to do with each other. Amazing ineptness.

5) One last foreign affairs fail.  According to recent Wall Street Journal reporting, Chinese nuclear weapons experts told the U.S. earlier this year that North Korea’s nuclear arsenal is larger than previously believed. The experts estimate that North Korea has already made 20 nuclear warheads and has enough weapons grade uranium available to double the number of warheads by 2016. The Chinese estimates were presented to U.S. nuclear specialists at a closed-door meeting at the China Institute of International Studies in Beijing this past February. 

The Obama administration has not had high level diplomatic talks on nuclear weapons since 2012, according to the Journal, after the North held a banned nuclear missile test. In the interim, they obviously have been busy building up a sizable nuclear weapons capability.

So let’s review:

• In the past month the administration has been snubbed by the King of Saudi Arabia and three other Gulf nation leaders who are not coming to Obama's Gulf nation summit.
• The President insulted two Saudi princes by screwing up Saudi family names.
• The Saudis may have already cut a deal with Pakistan to buy nuclear weapons to counter the emerging deal the U.S. is putting together with Iran that most in the Gulf region are opposed to.
• China and Russia are taking the first steps of getting real friendly with each other on the military front.
• And while Obama has been busy dealing with Iran, besides golfing and attending political fund raising events, the North Koreans have been busy building nuclear bombs at a rate that was not believed happening until earlier this year.

And these foreign affairs disasters have come to light in just the past month or so. Hard to see how any Presidential administration could have been less effective than this one, from screwing up names to allowing a nuclear arms race to take hold around the world.

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

January, 2015, Part 3, Political Class Insanity: Banking Cronyism, A Tower To Nowhere, And A Catch And Release Terrorist Program

It is the beginning of both another year and another month which means it is time to review the latest political class insanity from the American political class. For regular readers of this blog, you know that as 2014 progressed, the insanity, stupid quotes, ineffective governing and legislating, and general incompetence of our politicians seemed to accelerate as the year grinded on. No major issues got addressed, never mind resolved. Obama Care’s implications across the entire country and entire economy continued to unfold in disaster after disaster. Our foreign policy, or what was passed off as a foreign policy, was in tatters. Terrorism was on the march across the world. Veterans were dying because the Federal government could not fulfill the medical and health care promises those brave veterans were promised. The national debt has hit a mind boggling $18 TRILLION.

And our President continued to play golf and go on political campaign swings like no other President ever did. Congress narrowly missed becoming the least productive Congress of all time. Billions were spent and wasted on the November elections to elect people that did not deserve the time of day never mind billions of dollars. Racial division spread across the country, a division that was fomented and spread by those in office with something to gain.

And guess what? Over the  this week and next, you will see nothing has changed except the calendar. The political class is still out of control, the government entities that they rule over are bloated and ineffective, and the quality of life and freedom in this country continues to deteriorate. Hang on, it is going to be a bumpy next seven days or so.

1) Nothing says crony capitalism and work the system than our first piece of insanity from today. President Obama has nominated Antonio Weiss to become a new Treasury undersecretary. Apparently, Mr. Weiss has at least some background for doing a Treasury job since he is currently the global head of investment banking for a large banking concern called Lazard.

So far, so good. The insult comes when CNN reported that Lazard is going to pay this guy an astounding $21 million or so if he takes this government job. He will get about $16 million in unvested income and between $1 million and $5 million in so-called deferred compensation down the road. These numbers were culled from official records he filed with the government ethics office.

Getting paid upwards of $21 million to LEAVE a job and take another job that pays less than 1% of that figure? Now, I am not making an accusations, hopefully Mr. Weiss is a man of the highest integrity.

But whose best interests to you think Mr. Weiss will have as a top priority when making government decisions: yours, the taxpayer, or his banking industry friends and the interests of the banking industry, especially if he has millions of dollars potentially available to him in “deferred” commission down the road?

As we have always said, the appearance of conflict of interest is as bad as actual conflict of interest. And this appearance, worth $21 million or so, could not be any worse.

2) The Washington Post recently reported on a tremendous waste of money, money wasted to the tune of $349 million with no societal benefit in return. Their article quoted a project foreman that worked on this useless construction project:

“All you’ve done is go around in a damn circle, like a dog chasing his tail,” says a project foreman.

The “damn circle” is a laboratory tower that was built in Mississippi to test the vacuum of space and a new type of engine rocket. But the rocket project got mothballed which means the tower will likely never be used.




Further details of this spending disgrace include:

• NASA originally estimated the project would cost $119 to complete but that estimate soon rose to $163 million.
• But the cost is now up to $349 million, more than double the revised cost.
• Even worse, though, according to the Washington Post, NASA will annually spend an additional $700,000 to maintain the facility that will never be used.
• Shortly after the rocket program was canceled, Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker sponsored an amendment to reinstate construction and complete it by September 2013, even though the tower’s mission would never be realized: “Administrations come and go. I think it makes sense not to leave a partially constructed asset sitting there. I do believe, a decade from now, we’ll look back and see that it has been used in a very positive way.”
• However, Wicker could not provide a specific NASA program that might use the tower in the future, and NASA says it doesn’t have any rockets in development that would need the testing the tower provides.

Obviously, this politician is looking to create do-nothing work for his constituents to protect and enhance his own standing even if it wastes $700,000 a year on top of the hundreds of millions of dollars that have already been wasted. So typical of shallow thinking, selfish people in politics. 

I would be willing to let Mississippi have the $700,000 a year and let the tower rust away if the state would spend the money on feeding their hungry, sheltering their homeless treating their addicted, etc. At least someone who needed society’s help would be getting some benefit of the taxpayer money and it would not be totally wasted on a useless piece of steel somewhere in the backwoods of Mississippi.

3) Newsmax reported on December 22, 2014 that the Federal government was offering a $5 million for a terrorist that it used to have in custody.The money is being offered for the recapture of an Islamic terrorist the government let go six years ago who returned to his terrorist ways after attending, and obviously flunking out of, a Saudi rehab program for terror suspects.

Judicial Watch reported that Ibrahim al-Rubaysh, a Saudi national, was let go in 2006 under a Saudi program endorsed by President George W. Bush and continued "full-throttle" under President Barack Obama after it came across a State Department announcement of the reward: "It turns out that al-Rubaysh is the poster child for the Saudi rehab’s failures. He’s a dangerous al-Qaida operative based in Yemen and now, years after freeing him, the United States wants him captured," Judicial Watch said in a release.

Al-Rubaysh, who was held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is now a senior leader of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP): "He serves as a senior adviser for AQAP operational planning and is involved in the planning of attacks. He has served as a senior AQAP sharia official since 2013, and as a senior AQAP sharia official, al-Rubaysh provides the justification for attacks conducted by AQAP," the State Department added.

Lately he has busied himself by calling for attacks against U.S. targets and the Saudi royal family. Nice guy, and we held him captive, where he could do no harm, released him under the Obama administration, and now it could cost the American taxpayer at least another $5 million to capture him again or kill him. Makes you wonder how many other tens of millions of dollars the taxpayer will have to shell out as Obama releases more and more rerror captives back out into the war on terror. 

Again, you cannot make this stuff up, it is so telling of our government’s incompetence and the politicians that operate it.

It is the third day of our monthly political class insanity review and we are just getting warmed up., More to follow tomorrow and after.

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