October, 2015, Part 4, By The Numbers: What Americans Want Is Not What Politicians Deliver (Or Really Care About)

This is the fourth post among a few days worth of discussion of “by the numbers.” We do this theme occasionally where we look at the reality of the numbers in the world and not the lies, deceptions, and spin of the American political class. I used to work for a boss whose favorite quote was: “There is nothing more devastating to an opinion than the correct number.” By looking at the statistics, trends, and numbers in our world we can cut through the politicians’ smoke screen to truly understand what is going on and hopefully, remedy the issues of the day.

The numbers we will look at this week will often have a common thread running almost through all of them: the views, positions, and opinions of the majority of Americans are often the exact opposite of the views and related actions that our politicians own. Since we are supposed to be living in a representative government system one would hope that the laws, rules, and government functions that our politicians oversee reflect the thinking, hopes, and views of the American citizenry.

As the numbers will usually show, that is nowhere close to reality, which I think reflects two underlying negative trends:

1. American politicians vote and act for their own personal interests first, Americans’ interests and well being being of secondary consideration. If a politician’s actions can get them more votes or more campaign cash for their perpetual reelection campaigns, than that is their priority, usually not the priorities of their constituents.
2. Second, I personally believe that today’s American politicians take care of their special interest friends and financiers first and foremost, and the interests of those special interest friends (e.g.unions, corporations, lobbyists, etc.) are usually not in alignment with what the majority of Americans have as their priorities.

Keep these two possibilities in mind as we go “by the numbers” for the next few days and try to show the major disconnect between what Americans want and what politicians are doing:

1) Despite what the Obama administration might try to tell us about how much safer we are from a terrorist attack because of their anti-terror efforts, the numbers show that we are not buying their lies and spin. According to a September 8, 2015 Washington Examiner report by Paul Bedard:

• 72% of respondents to a recent survey by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs say that they still fear an Islamic based terror attack.
• This is the highest level of fear since the 9-11 attacks fourteen years ago.
• 73% of respondents are so concerned that they support the targeted assassination of terrorist leaders.
• Americans are more in favor of aggressive anti-terror measures more in 2015 than they were in 2014 (click on the chart for a larger view):

One reason for the growing pessimism and concern, as measured by these poll numbers, is that Obama's strategy to degrade and defeat the larger terror groups around the world has been an absolute failure. Despite spending billions of dollars, groups like ISIS continue to grow, enrich themselves, and attract more recruits than ever. 2) And while the above numbers show that Americans are more and more concerned about terrorism, a recent Gallup poll shows that they are also more and more concerned and convinced that corruption is widespread within our government:- In 2014, according to Gallup, 75% of those polled said that corruption is widespread in this country’s government structure.

- While this level of perceived corruption was down from the perceived level in 2013, our disgust with our politicians and their corruption is still trending upwards over time, up from 66% in 2009 when Obama took office:

Not a good thing when three out of four citizens think that their government is corrupt. It creates a layer of pessimism over the whole country that no problem or issue will ever get resolved because those in office who should be resolving those problems for the good of the citizenry are too busy lining their own pockets and taking care of the interests of their friends and cronies.And the reality that this perceived corruption has increased dramatically during the Obama administration shows that those who had our doubts about Obama have been proven correct.  The past seven years of increasing corruption during his administration bring to mind the old Who song lyrics: “meet the new boss, same as the old boss.” Those who thought that Obama was a breath of fresh air to lead the country to new heights failed to realize, as these numbers show, that he was just another shallow, corrupt politician from Chicago.

3) But perhaps all governments and the politicians that operate them are considered corrupt. Maybe the U.S. is not any different from the rest of the world and we should not be concerned. There actually is a set of numbers to explore that theory.Freedom House’s Press Freedom surveys ask the following questions of citizens around the world: is corruption widespread throughout the government in this country?The 2014 survey results are fascinating:

• Even in this survey, 75% of Americans polled think our government is corrupt.
• This level of perceived corruption places us as the 12th most corrupt government among the 37 nations considered in the survey, putting our government in the top 25% relative to perceived corruption.
• Only 14% of Sweden’s citizens considered their government to be corrupt, less than one fifth of what U.S. citizens considered their government to be corrupt.

The entire list of countries, including the 25 nations as whose citizens have a better perception of their government from a corruption perspective are listed below:



No matter what Obama thinks about his Presidency, the numbers show how poorly Americans perceive the job he has done. We are more fearful than ever of an Islamic terrorists attack, so much so that we want the government and this administration to take stronger actions to combat terrorism. But at the same time we are pretty disgusted with the corruption that is rampant in this administration in particular and our government in general, with three out of four of us thinking that our government is basically corrupt. The numbers do not lie even if politicians do. More 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

November, 2014, Part 7, Political Class Insanity: Joe Biden Spoken Embarrassments, Politicians Idiotic Quotes, Wasting Money At NIH and More

It is the start of another month which means it is time again to review the latest political class insanity that has been dumped on us by the worst set of politicians to ever hold office in the history of this country. From wasteful spending to bad priorities to general ineffectiveness, the insanity rolling out of Washington and other political centers and governments around the country seems to be accelerating as the idiocy of our political times increases.

Last month we set a record by needing almost two full weeks of posts to get all of the insanity documented and discussed. Given what I see today, we will be hard pressed not to get close to or exceed that record of insanity this month. It keeps getting worse and worse and the effectiveness of the political class gets less and less.

This is our seventh post in this month’s series so the insanity continues to flow out of the political class and into our lives, our wallets, and our freedoms.  Makes you wonder when the insanity will stop:

1) We recently went through another tortuous and idiotic set of political campaigns leading up to the midterm elections. So much advertising had to result in some political class insanity, which it did:

A. Colorado Senator Mark Udall of Colorado wanted a redo on a very simple question that was posed to him when asked by an interviewer to name three influential books he had read “Let me think. We can play this over, right? I mean, re-tape this?” Senator, there is no crying in baseball and no retapes in political campaigns. Be a little smarter and prepared, this is not a movie set where you get several takes, it is real life.

B. Stupidity was the word of the day when Bruce Braley, running for the U.S. Senate seat of Iowa, a farming center if there ever was one, said: "[If you do not vote for me] you might have a farmer from Iowa who never went to law school, never practiced law, serving as the next chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee.” A little political tip Mr. Braley: given that the vast majority of the people voting in your election are farmers who never went to law school and never practiced law, better not to insinuate that there are not very bright.

3) The first two examples above were pretty silly and stupid. The next example of election year insanity was actually pretty cruel and heartless. Texas Democrat governor candidate Wendy Davis really stooped low when attacking her wheelchair-bound Republican opponent Greg Abbott: “And I guarantee you that anyone who tries to say otherwise hasn’t walked a day my shoes.” Unfortunately, Mr. Abbott has not walked a day in anyone’s shoes in a long time, low blow.

D) Give Montana Democratic Senate candidate Amanda Curtis kudos for at least being honest when asked by a reporter about her position on the border crisis: “I’ll need more time, you know only 11 days ago I was painting my storm windows.” Well, that’s great, those storm windows really needed it.

To defend her somewhat, she was a late entry into the race after the original Democratic candidate withdrew after it was found out he committed plagiarism. But really, shouldn’t you have at least a little bit of a more strategic statement on a top ten national issue than “I was painting my storm windows.” Does not build confidence among voters.

2) Two sayings come to mind on the next piece of insanity: 

• “What goes around, comes around.” Author unknown.
• “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.” The Who

A recent Gallup poll showed that 32% of voters in this year’s midterm elections said that their midterm vote will send a message that they oppose President Obama while only 20% said that their vote will send a message of support for President Obama. A comparable Gallup poll in 2006 found that 31% of voters in that year’s midterm elections said that their midterm vote will send a message that they oppose President Bush while only 18% of voters said that their vote will send a message of support for then President Bush.

In other words, both Presidents are sitting in almost identical positions in the second midterm elections of their administrations. So much for hope and change, the more things change the more things stay the same, meet the new boss, same as the old boss. We are right back where we started eight years ago relative to the voters' distaste for the American political class.

3) Joe Biden is a lawyer. That means that he had at least seven years of college, four as an under graduate and three in law school. He has been often considered an expert on foreign affairs, given his time serving in the U.S. Senate.

But you really cannot take him seriously, especially when he recently stated that China is part of North America in a speech he gave in late September at Boston’s John F. Kennedy Forum at the Harvard Kennedy School. There he claimed that North America, "meaning Mexico, China and Canada," will account for two-thirds of the world's energy growth over the next two decades.

Come on Mr. Vice President, look at a map before you speak. How embarrassing is it for the country in the eyes of the rest of the world when the second in command of this country is so geographically ignorant? Insanely incompetent.

4) The National Institutes of Health (NIH), one of the taxpayer funded Federal government entities that should be financing and looking for vaccines and new medicines to combat major diseases such as Ebola, Alzheimers, dementia, etc., has spent more than $2 million to promote how joining a community choir can be beneficial to older adults. The NIH is currently financing a five-year project that is recruiting 450 “minority elders” to participate in choirs at senior centers in San Francisco.

Really? We are spending $2 million on 450 senior citizens in a single U.S. city, over $4,000 per person to encourage them to get into a choir? According to the grant proposal, there are almost 40 million senior citizens in the country. To reach all of them at this rate would cost about $178 BILLION.

How stupid is this program, especially since its premise is based on a similar study out of Finland a study with an extremely small and statistically unreliable sample size: “One hundred seventeen older adults who sing in community choirs in Jyväskylä, Finland, completed self-report measures of [quality of life] QOL, depressive symptoms, and a questionnaire about the benefits of singing in choir,” the report said. “Results suggest that singing in a community choir as an older adult may positively influence several aspects of QOL.”

Look, I am all for older Americans having a higher quality of life. But the country cannot afford these types of studies. Tens of millions of people are about to enter their golden years and are facing the devastating aging diseases of Parkinson's, Alzheimers, and dementia. I would bet that if you took a poll of every American senior and asked if they would rather have that $2 million spent on choirs or finding cures for these aging diseases, it would be no contest, cure the diseases.

That is why I find the NIH claim that it does not have an Ebola vaccine because it is under funded. It is not under funded, it is poorly managed when the NIH leadership funds stupid studies rather than real science studies to cure real diseases.

5) Let’s finish today’s insanity with more laughing at Joe Biden. Back in October, Biden was doing a public speech in Joplin, Missouri, when he again made a fool of himself. He overstated the deaths that were the result of a tornado that had torn the city up in 2011. The Vice President claimed the tornado claimed the lives of 161,000 people, or about 54 times more than had died from the 9-11 attacks: “161,000 brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, grandparents lost.”

But Reuters reported back in 2011 that the death toll was a little less, only 161 people had died as a result of the tornado. Oops, the Vice President was off by a factor of a thousand. Again, how can you take this politician seriously when he keeps screwing up basic data and basic realities? Do you really think that he, and others like him in Washington, have any clue how to defeat ISIS, protect us from Ebola, plan for our energy future, fix our broken public education system, grow the economy, or fix any other major issue facing Americans?

His actual uttering of these words can be seen at:

http://threepercenternation.com/2014/10/video-biden-overstates-deaths-in-joplin-missouri-tornado-by-160839/

That will do it for today’s insanity. It seems to never end, especially when people like Joe Biden are running the show. If we are lucky, the latest series of political class insanity posts may end tomorrow. Until then, take a look at our website that is promoting term limits at:

www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com

Given all of the insanity you have witnessed this week from the embedded political class across the country, but especially in Washington, how much worse could it get if we started over with a new set of people in Washington? At least most of them would likely know where China is on a map.

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