August, 2017, Part 4, Political Class Insanity: Criminal Politicians In Detroit, Economically Ignorant Politicians In Seattle, and Another Lost Battle Against Drug Addiction

It is the beginning of 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.

1) Those of you that follow politics and the antics of the American political class probably often think that the only people running for office or elected to office are criminals, given how greedy, unethical, and bribable they are. Turns out, at least in Detroit, you are correct, according to a recent Fox News report on August 4, 2017:

• Apparently, half of the candidates running for mayor of Detroit of felony records in their background.
• According to the Detroit News, three out of the eight candidates for mayor of Detroit have previously faced gun charges, with two of them having faced charges for assault to commit murder, and a fourth candidate pleaded guilty to a non-gun charge years ago. 
• The timing of these infractions date from the 1970s to more recent times.
• Donna Marie Pitts, 58, has multiple felony convictions dating back to 1977: “I don’t hide it. God has brought me out. I hope [voters] don’t look at it as negative but as my experience, and I can help. I want to fight for them.”
• Danetta Simpson was convicted in 1996 for assault with intent to murder.
• Articia Bomer was charged in 2008 for carrying a concealed weapon.
• Curtis Christopher Greene was charged with fourth-degree fleeing and eluding police during an attempted traffic stop, and a marijuana-related count. 

Proving once again that there is a very thin line between being a criminal and being a politician!

2) We have often pointed out with real world examples how politicians usually have absolutely no economic training, economic common sense, or economic experience. As a result, their economic policies and laws usually make bad economic situations worse. Obama was great at making stupid economic policies and decisions including the failed Cash For Clunkers program, the failed Cash For Appliances program, the failed $800 billion economic stimulus program, the failed Dodd-Frank legislation, the failed solar energy subsidy program, etc.

So it should not be a surprise when we find out that when the local politicians decided they knew best on what people should be paid for their wages, their actions/antics resulted in the exact opposite economic impact that they wanted, according to a recent Forbes report by Anne Vandermey:

• Local politicians in Seattle decided a few years ago that they would ramp up the local minimum wage level to $15 an hour because they knew best what a “living wage” should be.
• The early results on their economic “wisdom” showed what a failure their program is.
• A new study from the University of Washington that examined what happened to workers in local small businesses when the minimum wage level was raised found that on average workers received $125 LESS a month in wages than prior to the lifting of the minimum wage.
• You ask how could this happen, how could raising the minimum wage actually LOWER wages?
• Simple, some people got paid more by the small business population but others got fired outright since their employers could no longer to carry them on their payroll at a higher wage.
• Thus, on average more people lost their wages altogether which wiped out the increased wages of those that were fortunate enough to keep their jobs, i.e. the good news is that you got a raise, the bad news your higher wage level results in you getting laid off and having no wages.

Another bone headed economic policy from bone headed, economically ignorant politicians.

3) Obama Care was supposed to make the country healthier. If you follow this blog, you know that every month for the past six or seven years we have pointed out the reality that Obama Care did not reduce healthcare costs like promised, did not reduce insurance premium and deductibles like promised, and failed in just about every other dimension that can be measured.

And while maybe not directly focused on reducing drug abuse, a massive healthcare cost that burdens the economy and healthcare infrastructure in this country, it almost certainly did not help to fix the drug addiction problem in this country. I am talking about the rampant abuse of opioid painkiller abuse presently going on.

According to data from Blue Cross, that was highlighted in a recent Forbes magazine article, the abuse of opioids jumped 493% from 2010 through the end of 2016. The rate of opioid use disorder jumped from 1.4 per 1,000 to 8.3 per 1,000 over that seven year timeframe while drug overdose deaths jumped 63% during that same period. 

Thus, as we have pointed out numerous times, despite fighting a “war on drugs” since the Nixon administration, the American political class has never won a battle in that war. And the opioid addiction disaster is just another losing battle as no politician at any level of government has had the ability, the insight, intelligence, or willpower to figure out how to help Americans addicted to a variety of drugs, despite probably spending over a trillion dollars or so over the decades to fight this losing war.

That will do it for today’s insanity: politicians still losing the war on drugs, politicians still with no economic sense, and politicians that are actually crooks BEFORE getting elected. 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:

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

March, 2017, Part 3, By The Numbers: Trump Approval Over 50%, Cartel Farmers Invade Texas and More

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. 

This latest set of by the numbers will focus on what Americans think, feel, and want done in Washington and elsewhere within the political class. We will show that many times what politicians are doing and what the mainstream media is reporting and harping on could not be further away from what Americans want done. Our main set of numbers will come from reputable poll taking organizations whose reputations and future rely on conducting and reporting on opinions and trends in an unbiased manner, something that most mainstream media outlets no longer feel they need to do.

1) We have often discussed that the “war on drugs”conducted by the Federal government over the past four decades has been an absolute failure. All it has done is waste trillions of dollars and create very powerful, violent, and wealthy Mexican drug cartels. A recent set of numbers show how poorly the war on drugs is going:

• Law enforcement officials have announced that they have located 15 drug cartel “marijuana plantations” containing 77,000 marijuana plants.
• The amazing thing about these marijuana plantations is that they were not discovered in a far away land, they were found in the backwoods of Texas, across nine counties.
• Yes, a Mexican drug cartel, thought to be the Los Zetas, have had enough nerve and wherewithal to actually export part of their marijuana production physically into the United States.
• The estimated value of these thousands of marijuana plants is about $101.6 million according to reporting by the San Antonio Express News since it is estimated that these plants would eventually produce almost 170,000 pounds of marijuana, about 85 tons worth of grass.

Trillions of dollars spent and the Feds cannot even stop the cartels from moving their marijuana production into the United States proper. And these locations are what the Feds have found, who knows how many other cartel marijuana plantations are still operating that law enforcement efforts have not found. Depressing numbers, a complete failure of a major Federal program.

2) We have shown many times how awful the Obama recovery and economic policies and strategies were:

• Worst economic recovery from a recession since the Great Depression.
• Annual overall national economic growth that never exceeded 3% and never once got even close to the long term annual growth average.
• Job creation that was worst than just about any other economic recovery and the jobs that were created were mostly part time, contract, and low paying positions in the services industries.
• Household income and wages that were stagnant for almost the entire length of the Obama recovery until a recent small uptick.
• Millions of Americans that want full time jobs and can only find temporary jobs or have dropped out of the labor workforce altogether.
• The labor participation rate is at levels not seen since the stagflation years of the Carter administration with about 94 million American adults not in the workforce.

But now we find out how bad the economy is relative to the middle class that has taken a beating over the past eight years relative to good paying jobs. The Affluent Christian Investor website recently put together a fascinating analysis and set of numbers that shows how the end of the Obama administration left the Trump administration with one of the worst recent housing affordability ratio ever:

• The analysis first took the median American housing price for a typical single family home in the first year of each of the past nine U.S. Presidents and adjusted those housing prices for inflation.
• The next step in the analysis was to take the median annual family income in those same initial years of each Presidential administration and adjust those income levels for inflation.
• The analysis than graphed the difference between these two inflation adjusted numbers for each initial year of each Presidential term.
• For just about every Presidency, the difference was pretty constant between $100,000 and $120,000.
• With the exception of the second term of the George W. Bush Presidency, at the height of the housing boom, the Obama administration had the highest difference between median house value and median family income levels.
• Another way to view the numbers is to create a ratio between the adjusted median housing values and median family incomes.
• When these ratios are calculated, they all fall between 2.6 and 2.8 with the exception of the second Bush and second Obama terms whose ratios are well above 3.0.

These two number analyses indicate that the average/middle class family in America today is going to have a very difficult time purchasing a home and attaining the American Dream since the difference between median housing value and median family income is about 55% higher than the historical average and the ratio of house value is seriously out of line with historical affordability levels. 

At least the economy was booming, primarily due to the housing boom, under Bush which explain those results and numbers. Under Obama, the economy never boomed but the American dream of owning a home still has taken a serious hit as the American middle class gets shredded by the Washington political class and their inept economic abilities.

3) It is no mystery that the current political class in this country has no idea on howto make fiscally and economically sound decisions. The reality that they managed to run up a $20 TRILLION national debt without resolving an even single major issue facing Americans is more than enough to prove their idiocy when it comes to managing money, namely our tax money.

Terence P. Jeffrey, writing for the CNS News website on March 10, 2017, provides the latest proof of this concept:

• The Federal government has collected $611,318,000,000 in individual income taxes in the first five months of this fiscal year.
• This sets a record for the first five months of any previous fiscal year.
• And yet despite this record of income tax collection, more taxes collected by any government in the history of mankind, the Federal bureaucracy and Washington political class somehow still managed to run a whopping deficit of $348,984,000,000.
• In other words, the Washington politicians spent 28% more than they collected in total revenue.
• Ten years ago, before the recklessly overspending Obama administration took over, the Federal government five month spending level was just over $500,000,000,000 which means that Federal spending has gone up by 20% in just ten years.

As always, the numbers show us again that we do not have an under taxation problem in this country, we have a government overspending problem in this country. How you can collect a world record and humanity record in income taxes and still not have enough money to cover your expenses still boggles the mind.

4) One last set of numbers for this month. Liberals and Democrats would still have you believe that Donald Trump’s election was some kind of cosmic fluke that never should have happened. That Americans and America are all disgusted with his antics and actions in office and that he is the worst President ever. But is that really what America thinks? Apparently not, according to a recent Rasmussen poll:

• That poll showed that 53% of U.S likely voters approve of the job Trump is doing so far.
• 47% disapprove of the job he is doing.
• 37% strongly approve of the job he is doing while 36% strongly disapprove of the job he is doing resulting in what Rasmussen calls a Presidential Approval Index of +1%.

So yes, Trump is not universally loved by all Americans. But no President ever is. His 53% approval rating in this poll is comparable to the approval ratings Obama exited with so this is not a cosmic disaster as liberals and Democrats really want to believe and want you to believe. 

If you look at Trump’s other numbers, the very early trend is good: the stock market is way up, illegal entry attempts into the country are way down, job creation numbers from last month were much higher than expected. 

Bottom line on this month’s “by the numbers” review: always believe the numbers, never believe a politician of mainstream news report.

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

January, 2017, Part 2, Political Class Insanity: Criminal Politicians, Out of Control Federal Spending, and Still Losing The War On Drugs

It is the beginning of 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. 

Today and for all of the insanity posts this month, let’s start off with a welcome piece of honest political dialog. It comes from a State Department spokesperson. Mark Toner, who is about to start the daily State Department press briefing. In a joking matter, he makes the following quote: "Welcome to the State Department. I think we have some interns in the back. Welcome. Good to see you in this exercise in transparency and democracy." 

He then burst out laughing at his own quote, indicating he also knew what a joke the Obama administration has been, especially Mr. Toner’s State Department, when it comes to cover ups, lack of transparency, denial of Freedom of Information Act requests, the prosecution of whistleblowers, etc. But at least it was a little refreshing to finally hear some actual honesty out of Washington as we see from the actual clip of the news conference:

http://www.againstcronycapitalism.org/2016/08/when-even-the-state-department-spokesperson-cant-keep-a-straight-face-about-things-anymore-video/

With that context of honesty, let’s see what other insanity has been going down:

1) Terence P. Jeffrey, writing for the CNS News website on December 12, 2016, showed how much Federal government spending was out of control:

• In the first two fiscal months of 2017, October and November, 2016, the Federal government collected a record $213,300,000,000 in individual income taxes.
• On average, this comes out to about $1,700 for every U.S. household in just two months.
• This two month total broke the previous record set in the first two fiscal months of last year.
• Despite this record setting collection of taxes from the American people, the Washington political class still managed to run up an amazing $180,843,000,000 spending deficit in the same two months.
• At this current deficit rate, the Washington political class will incur another TRILLION dollar worth of national debt this year. 

In other words, despite collecting more taxes than at any other time in the history of humanity, the politicians could still not run a balanced budget. Another trillion dollar deficit will place an additional debt burden of about $3,000 on every man,woman, and child in this country, piled on the current individual debt burden of over $60,000 for every man, woman, and child from the $20 TRILLION in national debt that the Washington political class has already incurred.

As this insanity proves, consistent with other spending insanity we have previously discussed, we do not have an under taxation problem in this country, we have an overspending Federal government problem in this country. HIghest tax collection rate in the history of the world and they still run a huge deficit. Pathetic.

2) An additional scary revenue/spending issue identified in the above article was the reality that while income tax collections hit an all time high in early fiscal 2017, Social Security and other payroll taxes totals actually declined in early fiscal 2017 vs. fiscal 2016. Social Security and other payroll taxes dropped from $165,746,890,000 in October-November of last year to $164,936,000,000 in October-November this year.

This is scary since we know that the Social Security expenses and costs will continue to get higher and higher every month as more and more Baby Boomers retire but it appears, at least in this time frame, that the revenues needed to pay these increasing costs are flat or declining a little. More proof that Social Security is heading towards a fiscal cliff unless serious and smart changes are made to the program, changes that were outlined in our book, ”Love My Country, Loathe My Government.”

Unfortunately, the word “smart” and the Washington political class are two concepts that rarely are mentioned in the same sentence or context.

3) An article in the Salt Lake Tribune,written by Tom Harvey and Jennifer Dobner on December 17, 2016, discussed a criminal investigation going on in Utah as it pertains to retiring U.S. Senator Harry Reid. Keep in mind, that Harry Reid is presumed innocent until proven guilty despite being the focus of a criminal investigation involving a potential kickback or bribe worth $2 million. According to the article:

• A $2 million cashier’s check was created at a St. , Utah bank on November 5, 2010.
• The check was then sent via FedEx to a lawyer in Los Angeles, a lawyer that was employed by Ireland-based Full Tilt Poker.
• The check was made out Mail Media LTD which was eventually deposited at Basler Kantonalbank in Switzerland where Mail Media LTD has an account.
• The article alleges that Mail Media LTD is a subsidiary that is owned by Full Tilt and that it is used to launder online gambling funds.
• From Switzerland, it appears the money went into a Marshall Islands account owned by Searchlight Holding Inc.
• And that is where Utah Davis County Attorney Troy Rawlings is trying to determine if that money eventually was used by Searchlight to benefit or bribe Senator Harry Reid.

In addition, documents obtained by investigative reporting by the Salt Lake Tribune, including state and Federal government court filings, public record requests, audio recordings and transcripts of interviews, emails, and other materials show that the Federal Department of Justice and the FBI failed to follow up in any way to see if Reid was the illegal recipient of the $2 million.

Even the Utah state attorney general has not turned over any funding that would help Rawlings determine once and for all, possibly via a grand jury, whether Reid is a dirty politician. Which has left Rawlings wondering who, if anyone, is telling the DOJ, the FBI, and others to stay clear of the case.

Of course, the FBI denies it is shirking its investigative responsibilities, according to FBI spokeswoman Sandra Yi Barker said, "At no time has the FBI or DPS been asked to back off of an investigation of any public official."

Rawlings provided some context for the FBI wavering in the article: "The FBI, via the Salt Lake City Field Office, was willing to investigate these allegations … wanted to actively engage. The Salt Lake office was taking steps to do so, but suddenly they were not."

Again, Mr. Reid is considered innocent until proven guilty. But given how the Obama administration has politicized and bastardized the DOJ and the FBI over the past eight years, it is not a stretch of the imagination for this administration to protect one of its own relative to self enrichment. That is the way of Washington where the rich get richer and we continue to pay record high taxes.

3) Let’s stay with the theme of crooked politicians for this next discussion where we have a politician that was actually proven guilty. According to Charlie Hoffman, writing for the Washington Free Beacon on December 12, 2016:

• Former Congressman Chaka Fattah was sentenced to ten years in prison in mid-December.
• He was found guilty of a number of Federal charges including corruption, fraud, racketeering, and money laundering.
• In total he was convicted on 23 charges for which the prosecutors wanted a sentence of 17 to 22 years in prison.
• Some of the charges including illegally taking a $1 million campaign contribution when he was running to become the mayor of Philadelphia, using campaign funds to pay off his son’s college debt, funneling money through a fake non profit organization, and taking $27,000 in bribes from a fundraiser.
• His ten year prison term is the second longest for any member of Congress convicted of corruption charges.

Just another in a long line of Washington politicians where self interest and self enrichment are their primary functions as opposed to serving those that elected them. And remember, Harry Reid is innocent until proven guilty.

4) While many Washington politicians are greedy and criminal, Mexican drug cartels have to at least be given credit for creativity and originality in their pursuit of profit. According to the MRCTV website’s Brittany Hughes, writing on December 12, 2016:

• Mexican drug cartel smugglers are using air cannons to launch shipments of marijuana into the U.S.
• Unfortunately, one of those packages was picked up by a couple of American teenagers that happened to be in the area who were subsequently picked up by U.S.Border Patrol agents.
• And this was not a couple of ounces, the projectile of grass weighed in at 34 pounds.

Never underestimate the creativity of a criminal when there is profit to be made regardless of whether or not that action is legal. Consider some other inventive ways that have been thwarted by the Border Patrol when it comes to smuggling illegal drugs into this country:

• In mid-December, the Border Patrol arrested a 23 year old Mexican after they found him trying to sneak a whopping five tons of grass into the country, street value over $5 million, via a shipment of vacuum pumps.
• That same day the Border Patrol agents found $370,000 worth of grass inside a horse trailer.
• They recently found 190 pounds of weed inside a Mazda, $80,000 worth of cocaine inside an SUV, 36 pounds of meth in a Toyota, 16 pounds of meth in a Honda, half a million dollars worth of cocaine in a Dodge truck, and 17 pounds of heroin in freezer bags in toy boxes in a car coming over the border.
• This should not be a surprise since in 2015, the Border Patrol seized, on average, 9,500 pounds of illegal drugs every DAY.
• In other words, almost five tons of illegal drugs were intercepted every day throughout the year.
• Border Patrol agent with the Grande Valley Sector of the the U.S.Mexican border testified for Congress that the Border Patrol nabs a pretty low percentage of drugs coming across the border, meaning that if almost five tons a day were being intercepted, many, many more tons were getting through to the streets of America.

We go over these numbers to prove once again what a failure that the Federal government’s “war on drugs” has been. Forty plus years and at least a trillion dollars later, the drug cartels and criminals are still smuggling tons of illegal drugs into this country every DAY, resulting in the deaths of upwards of 50,000 Americans every year. 

It is time to stop the war on drugs and start the war on treatment and prevention. What the Federal government has done over and over with failure at each turn reinforces an old Einstein quote: "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” The failed war on drugs and the politicians who continue to support it prove Einstein right every day down on the Mexican and U.S. border.

That will do it for today’s insanity: a failed war on drugs, a convicted criminal politician, a potential criminal politician, and still spending more money than they are getting in Washington. More insanity 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:


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

December, 2015, By The Numbers, Part 2:Trump Voters Were Not What Is Assumed, More War On Drugs Failures, and More

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) We have often pointed out how poorly Obama has handled economic matters in this country over the past eight years despite having three of the most helpful economic tail winds to help him:

• He implemented a massive (and failed) $800 billion economic stimulus plan.
• Energy prices went down dramatically that should have produced a major boost to the economy as businesses and consumers had newly available disposable income that they did not have to spend on energy costs.
• The Fed flooded the market with trillions of dollars to stimulate the economy.

Despite these major economic helpers, Obama still managed the following disastrous and meager economic results:

• He doubled the national debt burden from about $10 TRILLION to about $20 TRILLION, incurring more debt than all previous Presidencies COMBINED.
• Wage and household economic and wealth growth has been meager or non-existent for much of his economic recovery period.
• Over 84 million American adults are not in the workforce at this time, an all time record.
• The labor participation rate is at its lowest levels since the Carter administration.
• More Americans over the age of 65 are still working than ever before while more adults aged 18 to 30 are living at home with their parents than ever before.
• Millions of Americans are working part time jobs because they cannot find full time work in the Obama recovery.
• The true unemployment rate, the U-6 rate is still almost 10% despite six years of the Obama recovery.
• The Fed has kept interest rates at historical lows for a historically long time, indicating they also think the Obama recovery is as weak as can be.
• Annual GDP growth during the Obama recovery has never attained the long term average growth rate of just over 3% a year, indicating a recovery that is the weakest over at least the past eighty years or so.

So for most of the country, the Obama recovery has been tepid at best. Unless you happen to live in the Washington DC area, in which case, live is very good for you economically. According to Terence P. Jeffrey, writing for the CNS News website on December, 15, 2016:

• The four richest counties in the whole country are located in the Washington DC metro area.
• These counties are Loudoun County, Virginia which had a median household income of $125,900, Falls Church City, Virginia which had a median household income of $122,092, Fairfax County, Virginia at $112,844 and Howard County, Maryland at $110,224.
• “Poor” Arlington, Virginia lagged behind at only the number 8 wealthiest county in the country at $104,354.
• In fact, nine of the wealthiest 20 counties in the c0untry are in the DC metro area.
• These DC metro households had median household incomes that were more than double the national average which is $55,755.

To keep this in perspective, counties around New York City, home to hedge fund managers, mutual fund managers, stock market players were not in the top ten. One one county in Silicon Valley, home to tech geniuses and billionaires, put only one county in the top ten.

I know of no major industry, business segment, research center in the Washington DC area except one: feeding at the Federal trough at the expense of the American taxpayer. No value added, minimal societal benefits, no breakthrough to make Americans lives easier or safer, just very high taxpayer funded salaries, boondoggles and little value added. That great sucking sound is not American jobs going to Mexico because of NAFTA, it is taxpayer dollars being sucked down the toilet of the Washington metro area with no payoff in return. The numbers do not lie.

2) One of the more contemptible myths that the mainstream media and liberal hateful types kept up during the Presidential election were that the only people voting for and supporting Trump were poor, dumb, uneducated rural Americans. It was a cruel and condescending attack on fellow American citizens.

Well, it turns out that the name callers may have been the uneducated ones:

• Jolene Peters, writing for the I Have The Truth website on December 17, 2016, discussed some interesting numbers regarding Trump voters.
• Ms. Peters reported on a CBS News report on a study by the Urban Institute.
• Surprising to liberals is likely the reality that the 55 counties in the country with the highest average credit scores, defined as 720 or better, Trump actually won 51 of those counties.
• Conversely, the 11 counties across the country that have the lowest overall credit score averages all went for Hillary Clinton.
• People with higher credit scores usually have a higher level of affluence, usually pay their bills on time and generally have higher income levels.

Thus, the numbers prove that the mainstream media got it wrong...again. Trump supporters may not have been poor, dumb, uneducated, and rural.

3) One last set of numbers for today. We have often pointed out that the 40 year “war on drugs” has been an indisputable failure. It has caused our country to have the highest prison population in the world by just about any measure, it has created dangerous, wealthy, and violent drug cartels around the world, and has done very little to impact the usage of illegal drugs in this country. And this carnage has come at the price of likely over a trillion taxpayer dollars over the past four decades.

The numbers from a recent Tampa Bay News article point out how futile this “war” has been:

• Drug overdose deaths have increased by 35% over the past five years.
• In some states, the increase in overdose deaths has been over 200%.
• The main root causes of ther increase in overdose deaths has been heroin and prescription painkillers.
• In 2015, 52,000 Americans died from drug overdoses with about two thirds of them being caused by prescription painkillers.
• Death from the failed war on drugs in 2015 were about 40% higher than the number of Americans who died from traffic accidents or gun deaths
• Einstein once said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Forty years later and 50,000 Americans still dying every year from drug abuse certainly fits this definition of insanity.

So, what did the numbers tell us today: the war on drugs is still a failure after forty years, TRUMP supporters may not have been as dumb and poor as the myth says they are, and rich people live in the Washington DC area. 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:


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

If You Are Voting For Hillary, Please Consider Reading This Before Voting

As the Presidential election is coming up and the campaigning FINALLY coming to an end, I thought it would be a good idea to do a little side by side comparison of Hillary Clinton, Democrat, to Gary Johnson, Libertarian, before election day. Since I have never voted for a Republican for President in my life and I have been voting since the 1970s, I am leaving Trump out of this comparison, he is not worth my attention. 

To be honest, I am fed up with Hillary supporters coming at me because I am not a big fan of her (frankly, I believe she should be in jail given the number of laws she has broken), implying or outright accusing me of being either an idiot or I am intimidated because she is a strong woman. At no point do they talk about the issues and character of the woman, the fact that I do not support her means there must be something fundamentally wrong with me.

So today, let’s try to get past the emotions and name calling and do a little comparison between Gary Johnson and Hillary Clinton that is based on facts and realities, not blind obedience to a party or personality or the sex of a candidate. If you are a Hillary supporter, I challenge you to read the entire comparison and open your mind to the possibility that who you support as a liberal is really not what is right for the country, your kids or your grandkids. I dare you.

Gay Rights:

• Gary Johnson - fully supported gay rights from the beginning, in fact, the Libertarian Party has supported full gay rights for decades.
• Hillary Clinton - fully supports gay rights but supported gay marriage only when it became politically advantageous for her to recently do so.

Women’s Rights:

• Gary Johnson - fully supports women’s rights including the right to choose.
• Hillary Clinton - fully supports women’s rights including the right to choose...unless a woman went public after she was groped, fondled, or sexually harassed by Hillary’s husband, in which case those women must be publicly humiliated and destroyed.

Military Intervention:

• Gary Johnson - vehemently anti-war unless the sovereignty of our country or the safety of American citizens are immediately at risk.
• Hillary Clinton - vehemently pro-war given her support of the Iraq invasion, the U.S. military intervention in Syria and Libya and the new news that she supported bombing Iranian facilities on Iranian soil.

Federal Budget:

• Gary Johnson - strong supporter of the Federal government expenses being in line with Federal government tax revenue and will propose a balanced budget for Congressional approval within 100 days of being elected.
• Hillary Clinton - strong supporter of the Federal government running large budget deficits which will continue to put additional tax and debt burdens on our kids and grandkids for decades to come.

War on Drugs:

• Gary Johnson - would stop the lost war on drugs.
• Hillary Clinton - would stop the lost war on drugs.

Classified Information/Material Security:

• Gary Johnson - has not mishandled classified government materials and documents.
• Hillary Clinton - should be in jail for mishandling classified government materials and documents, obvious felonious acts.

Set-up Illegal Computer Systems For Use By Government Employees:

• Gary Johnson - has not set-up illegal computer systems for use by government employees.
• Hillary Clinton - has set up illegal computer systems for use by government employees which should have gotten her thrown in jail.

Protected Government Email Records:

• Gary Johnson: No record of him ever destroying government email records.
• Hillary Clinton: Destroyed over 30,000 emails via high tech computer scrubbing software,and using lawyers without security clearances, to cover up her felonious behavior and then lied about what was in those 30,000 destroyed emails.

Integrity and Lying:

• Gary Johnson: No evidence he is a pathological liar.
• Hillary Clinton: Has been proven to be a pathological liar from falsely claiming that she landed under sniper fire in Bosnia to falsely claiming her daughter had a Phd in Public Health to falsely claiming that the Benghazi terror attack was caused by an obscure YouTube video to falsely claiming she was always against NAFTA, to falsely claiming that the 30,000 emails contained only personal and family information, etc., etc., etc.

Name Calling:

• Gary Johnson: no evidence that he has made bigoted remarks about broad swaths of Americans from a racial, religious, and ethnic perspective:
• Hillary Clinton: documented proof that Clinton and members of her staff have insulted broad segments of American civilians, calling tens of millions of them “deplorables” (Trump supporters), “basement dwellers” (Bernie Sanders supporters), “never do wells” (Muslims and African Americans), “rednecks”, “old white men”, medieval thinkers (Catholics), and “taco bowl” outreach targets (Hispanics).

Chance of Bipartisanship:

• Gary Johnson: successful two term Republican governor in a traditionally Democratic state.
• Hillary Clinton: Has insulted tens of millions of Americans by calling them deplorables, basement dwellers, never do wells, etc. making bipartisanship very difficult and unlikely.

Accepted Billions Of Dollars From Nations With Horrific Women’s Rights and Gay Rights Records

• Gary Johnson: Not known to have taken money from nations with horrific women’s rights and gay rights records.
• Hillary Clinton: Has taken billions of dollars in various ways from such nations as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Morocco, UAE, and others, all of whom have catastrophic records on women and gay rights.

Million Dollar Payoffs To Their Spouses:

• Gary Johnson: No record of his wife ever receiving a million dollar payoff from a foreign country.
• Hillary Clinton: Husband Bill was rewarded with a million dollar payoff from Qatar, one of those Muslim nations who are not kind to women and gay rights.

Government Size:

• Gary Johnson - will submit a balanced budget within 100 days after being elected and will aggressively cut government's size and influence in our lives including the complete termination of whole Federal government Cabinet-level departments.
• Hillary Clinton - will aggressively expand the size of government, resulting in an ever increasing national debt, higher taxes, lower economic growth, and less individual freedom.

Obama Care's Future:

• Gary Johnson - will totally repeal and terminate the disastrous Obama Care process and put the choice and resources for each American's health care back into their own personal hands with a market driven, competition driven economic model that attacks the root causes of high healthcare costs.
• Hillary Clinton - has called Obama Care one of the greatest achievements of the Democratic party even though Obama Care health insurance premium costs are skyrocketing upwards, deductible levels are surging, health care costs overall continue to climb much faster than inflation, Obama Care policy holders have much fewer choices in doctors, hospitals, and insurance options and carriers, the law has stifled economic growth especially among the small business segment, has exposed millions of Americans to increased threats of identity theft given the lousy data systems of the law, it has attained no more than 50% of its promised level of insured Americans, and it will add over a trillion dollars to the national debt over the next ten years, leaving one to try to imagine how bad a failed Democratic party initiative is if this is one of their greatest accomplishments.

Operator Of A Crime Syndicate:

• Gary Johnson - no evidence that he has ever operated and profited from any type of crime syndicate.
• Hillary Clinton - she and her husband have gotten rich, attaining a wealth level north of $100 million, by operating a crime syndicate known as the Clinton Foundation.

Harbored A Sexual Predator Family Member:

• Gary Johnson: No reason to believe that Johnson or his spouse ever harbored a sexual predator family member.
• Hillary Clinton - Every reason to believe that she protected, condoned, and abetted a sexual predator husband for decades who fondled, groped, sexually harassed, and possibly raped an untold number of women.

Two Faced When It Comes To Policy:

• Gary Johnson - no reason to believe that Johnson changes his position on issues and policies depending on his current audience.
• Hillary Clinton - has admitted in speeches to Wall Street firms that she sometimes has both a "public" policy position and a "private" policy position, which many would call hypocrisy.

Beholden To Wall Street:

• Gary Johnson - no evidence that Johnson is beholden to or owes Wall Street any favors.
• Hillary Clinton - has given numerous speeches to Wall Street firms, usually receiving speaking fees worth hundreds of thousands of dollars with the likely quid quo pro return favor implied.

Sabotaged His/Her Opponents During Primary Activities:

• Gary Johnson - no evidence that Johnson sabotaged his opponents' primary activities or efforts.
• Hillary Clinton - conspired with Debbie Wasserman- Schultz, chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, to ensure that Hillary was the party's nominee and undercutting Bernie Sanders at every opportunity.

Individual Health (could they withstand the rigors of the Presidency):

• Gary Johnson: has climbed high mountains, has completed triathlons, and has excellent overall physical condition and health.
• Hillary Clinton: coughing fits, fainting spells, heavily medicated, suffered seriously head injury from a fall several years ago.

Views on the Constitution:

• Gary Johnson: staunch defender of the Constitution as are all Libertarians.
• Hillary Clinton: already signals that she wants to limit Constitutional rights, particularly those guaranteed by the First and Second Amendments.

There you have it, an exhaustive list of the issues, behavior, and character of Gary Johnson vs. Hillary Clinton. If after reading this list and I have convinced you that Gary Johnson is a better choice on election day than Hillary Clinton, I applaud you for having an open to to facts and realities and your changing of your vote to Johnson.

If I have not changed your mind and you are still going to vote for Hillary, I still certainly respect your Constitutional right to do so. But I have a hard time understanding how you could vote for a women that is AT BEST going to maintain the status quo in this country, a status quo that has made most Americans poorer, less optimistic about our future, has heaped TRILLIONS of dollars of debt on the back of our kids and grandkids, likely continued to support military intervention across the Middle East, and a woman whose moral character and integrity is abysmal in my opinion. This is a woman who obviously despises broad segments of Americans but who loves the money that flows to her and her family from foreign countries that abhor women and gay rights.

And finally, if I have convinced you that Gary Johnson is a better candidate and person than Hillary Clinton but you are still going to vote for her anyway, than I do not understand that behavior at all. If it is to vote against Donald Trump, then I remind you of the old saying, “the lesser of two evils is still evil.” Supporting Hillary Clinton even when you know she is not the right candidate just perpetuates the existing political class in this country, people that care more about themselves and their enrichment than you and the rest of the country. 

Every vote for Trump and Clinton, either one, continues to support the trash that resides in Washington today. A vote for Gary Johnson, or Jill Stein or Bernie Sanders or anyone else, weakens the evil that is the political establishment. Continuing to reinforce that evil is inane, in my opinion.

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

Part 7, The Obama Presidency, The End Of An Error - Miscellaneous Failures and Disappointments

As we near the end of the Obama Presidency, I thought it would be a good idea at the 100 day mark to review what he has done to and for this country over the past eight years. Before we do that, though, let me repeat my previous background statements on my past political actions:

• I have never voted for a Republican Presidential candidate in my life and I have been voting since the the Nixon era.
• Until 2010, I have never voted for a Republican for national office in my life.
• I am not affiliated with nor do I associate myself with the Republican Party, conservatives or people like Donald Trump.

Okay, now that we understand where I am coming from, let me just say that in my opinion Barack Obama has been the most inept, most divisive, most narcissist and worst diplomat in my lifetime to reside in the White House. From the economy, to race relations, to the national debt, to foreign relations to government operations, to blatant disregard for existing laws and the Constitution, in just about any measure we are far worse off as a nation than prior to him coming into office.

We will breaking down the failures and disappointments of this administration into some broad categories that will take us a number of days to cover as we analyze “The Obama Presidency - The End Of An Error.” Over the past week we have touched on a number of broad categories of Obama’s failures:

Broken Promises and Lies: http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2016/10/part-1-obama-presidency-end-of-error.html

Broken Laws and Constitution Violations: http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2016/10/part-2-obama-presidency-end-of-error.html

Once a Community Organizer, Still A Conmmunity Organizer:  http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2016/10/part-3-obama-presidency-end-of-error.html

Foreign Affairs and Diplomatic Disasters: http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2016/10/part-4-obama-presidency-end-of-error.html

The Unimpressive Set Of Obama "Firsts:" http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2016/10/part-5-obama-presidency-end-of-error.html

Gross Economic Management: http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2016/10/part-6-obama-presidency-end-of-error.html

Today, will be our last review of the many, many failures of the Obama administration and we will focus on a bunch of miscellaneous failures and other stuff that I have found trivial, repugnant, and embarrassing from this administration over the past eight years. These topics are in addition to the failures we have already discussed over the past six posts including Obama Care failures, foreign affairs failures, economic failures, and the scores of broken promises and lies from this President.

Miscellaneous Failures and Other Stuff 

When Obama spoke at the funeral of the Hawaiian Senator Daniel Inouye, a decorated World War II soldier and long time Senator, Obama's ego and narcissism was so large that he mentioned himself far more times than he mentioned the Senator. 

When Neil Armstrong died, Obama’s ego and narcissism was so large that he sent out a picture of himself looking up at the sky with no visual of Armstrong at all:

When Rosa Parks’s bus rebellion was being celebrated, Obama’s ego and narcissism was so large that he posted a picture of himself sitting in the bus seat where Rosa Parks sat but with no visual of Rosa Parks at all:

When Muhammad Ali died, Obama’s ego and narcissism was so large that he published a picture of himself underneath an Ali picture:

While on the Tonight Show, Obama joked that his bowling talents were the equivalent of a Special Olympics kid: “It's like -- it was like Special Olympics, or something." Class act, not.

Obama exchanged an Army deserter, Bowe Bergdahl, for five high valued and dangerous terrorists who were imprisoned at the Guantanamo terrorist prison, endangering the lives of innocents all over the Middle East and the world.

He then turned around and invited the deserter’s parents to a White House press event and a private meeting with himself while ignoring the families and soldiers who were wounded and killed when they went out to rescue the deserter Bergdahl.

When a Ferguson, Missouri African American young man assaulted a store owner, stole from the store owner’s store, and tried to assault a police officer, actions that resulted in his fatal shooting by the police officer, Obama sent three members of his administration to the funeral. When a young, Caucasian woman in San Francisco was killed by an illegal immigrant who had been arrested multiple times and deported multiple times but allowed to roam the streets by the Obama administration, the Obama White House was silent and sent no members of his administration to her funeral.

While over two dozen Americans were fighting for their lives in Benghazi, the President went to bed and then rose early to fly to a political fundraiser in Las Vegas.

His administration cooked up a lie about the cause of the Benghazi attacks in order to protect a campaign talking point and then lied to the world and the country via a United Nations speech.

He belittled and taunted millions of common American citizens that have legitimate scientific concerns and doubts about the whole global warming/climate change myth.

He played over 300 rounds of golf, attended a record number of political fundraising events, and went on many, many lavish vacations, after promising to have no personal life during his first Presidential campaign.

He took time off from work, despite the wide amount of issues and problems facing Americans today, to waste vast amounts of time to annually go on ESPN to discuss his college basketball March Madness picks, film an TV advertisement for a comedy show, he allowed himself to be interviewed by a lady who once filmed herself taking a milk bath filled with Fruit Loops, and wasted vast amounts of other Presidential time to go on many other TV shows.

Although he constantly promised to fix the broken processes and procedures at the dysfuncitonal Veterans Affairs Agency (VA), years later the VA was still totally dysfunctional with veterans not getting the medical help they need and were pronmised.

He enjoyed multiple vacations, rounds of golf, and political fundraisers while millions of Americans near the Gulf Of Mexico were fighting for their livelihoods and homes as a result of a massive oil platform disaster.

When American James Foley was gruesomely beheaded in the Middle East, Obama treated this event as an inconvenience that was interfering with his golf tee time, throwing together a half ass press conference after which he immediately headed to the course, never consoling Mr. Foley’s family like he did for Army deserter Bergdahl.

Whenever someone says something negative about Islamic terrorism, Obama gets vocal and offended but as Islamic terrorists practice genocide against religious minorities across the Middle East he is silent.

Whenever someone says something negative about Islamic terrorism, Obama gets vocal and offended but as Islamic terrorists enslave and torture religious minority women across the Middle East he is silent.

He conducted secret nuclear weapons negotiations with the terrorist Iranian regime that resulted in secret side deals in addition to a horrible public nuclear arms treaty.

He paid a $400 million cash ransom for the release of four Americans being illegally held by the Iranian regime, simultaneously violating the current and long standing U.S. policy of paying ransom to terrorists and likely giving a cash infusion into Iranian terrorist activities around the Middle East.

He allowed his Secretary of State to operate a crime syndicate that traded U.S. interests and assets for massive personal financial gain of that Secretary of State.

His administration interfered with several ongoing FBI criminal investigations to ensure that his former Secretary of State never went to jail or was held accountable for her crimes and transgressions.

After declining steadily for decades, the national level of violent crime has reversed this long term trend and may be starting to rise again.

He allowed several members of his cabinet to use secret email accounts and processes in direct violation of government regulations and laws.

Over six years since the Dodd-Frank legislation was passed, whose intent was to ensure that the conditions that caused the Great Recession never occurred again, his administration has still not completed the necessary government regulations and rules to implement that legislation, rendering it useless.

The following failures of the Obama administration are also common to recent Presidential administrations. However, just because other, recent administrations were not successful in these areas does not mean that the Obama Presidency was also not a failure. Keep in mind that these failures occurred despite the Obama administration spending about $30 TRILLION during its tenure, in other words, about $25 TRILLION spent and we have only the following failures to show for it:

• We are still under educating our kids relative to the kids around the world.
• We still have no effective and overarching energy strategy to wean us off of foreign energy sources.
• We still have no fair, comprehensive, and effective immigration policy.
• Our borders are still not secure allowing illegal drugs, foreign criminals, and quite probably terrorists to enter the country, endangering the lives of Americans.
• We are still losing the “War on Drugs.”
• Government operations are still inefficient, ineffective, wasteful, criminally infested, and expensive.
• Our country’s infrastructure is still falling apart.
• Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are still rushing towards financial insolvency with no plans proposed or in place to prevent their financial collapse.
• The possibility of peace in the Middle East has never been further out of reach.
• Health care costs are still rising dramatically despite Obama Care with no solution to this debacle proposed or likely.

Now, please do not come back to me and say Obama cannot be blamed for these failures because Republicans impeded him at all times. This is a bogus argument for three reasons:

1. In the first two years of his term, his political allies controlled both houses of Congress and he still was unable to get any of the above issues resolved except for passing the failed Obama Care legislation and the still incomplete Dodd-Frank regulations.
2. He has not proposed any solutions to the impending failure of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, he has not proposed any comprehensive plans to bring peace to the Middle East, he has not proposed any solutions for our failing public schools, etc., so the Republicans could not have blocked any of his plans and solutions since he never developed and presented them inthe first place.
3. Did I mention that his administration spent over $25 TRILLION and still could not resolve any of the above issues?

That will do it for our summary of the many, many failures of the Obama administration. They touched on just about any imaginable topic and area, from lies and lack of integrity to the unfolding disaster that is Obama Care to a completely failed foreign relations and diplomatic effort, etc., etc., This is the most ineffective, wasteful, and dysfunctional Presidency of my lifetime.

As we said previously in this series, eight years ago a community organizer with little international and Washington experience became President. Eight years later we have a soon to be ex-President who never matured into an effective leader, leaving office as the same small minded community organizer of eight years ago.

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