Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Insanity, Part 7: Prioritizing Illegals Before Citizens, Exhibiting Her A.D.D. and More

Over the past few months, New York City Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has established herself as a human gaffe machine. Her inability to do simple math, her outlandish ideas based on an alternative reality, her economic ignorance, and lack of common sense has resulted in an almost daily stream of idiocy, inane comments, and ridiculous ideas that have no basis in reality.

As a result, most of our recent political class insanity posts have almost always had an Ocasio-Cortez piece of insanity. Thus, we have decided to separately track her craziness and idiotic takes on economics, business, government, and whatever else on a regular basis under its own set of posts. She deserves to have a separate effort that captures all of the ridiculousness she espouses.

The original format we were going to use was to start with a set of her original inane ideas and just continue to build on that initial list as time goes by. But after just three summaries of her idiocy and stupid ideas it has become obvious that we cannot continually add to the existing set of ineptness, that list would get too large too quickly.

Thus, each new Ocasio-Cortez post will have only the latest gaffes out of her mouth. To review her previous idiocies just enter her last name in the search box above. The latest post can be accessed at:

https://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2019/03/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-insanity-part_31.html

Let’s get started:

1) It is becoming more and more obvious to anyone who listens to Washington liberals these days that these politicians are more interested in helping illegal immigrants than taking care of needy Americans.These Democrats see illegal immigrants as future voters who are most likely to vote Democrat and advance their agenda at the cost of the needs and desires of legitimate American citizens.

No one illustrates this sick take on priorities than Ocasio-Cortez and she is not ashamed to blatantly state that illegal immigrants are more important to her than legal, real American citizens:

• In a recent Congressional hearing in front of a House committee, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross was discussing the upcoming Census.
• He and Trump want to have a question on the Census form that requires anyone filling out the form to state whether or not they are a legal American citizen.
• Sounds logical, the Census is supposed to count the number of citizens living everywhere in the country, it is not supposed to count illegal immigrants as citizens and the responses of illegal immigrants should not be used to establish Congressional representation, a main function of the Census.
• Of course, Ocasio-Cortez does not see it that way since she, as always, she cares more about illegal immigrants than her own legal citizens and the proper execution of the Constitution. 
• Specifically, “Mr. [Senator] Kobach later emailed to you on July 14 writing that the lack of the citizenship question ‘leads to the problem that aliens who do not actually reside in the United States are still counted for congressional apportionment services. Of course they do reside in the United States. They reside in my district. They’re my constituents.”

So ignorant, so wrong. No Congresswoman, they are not your constituents. Your constituents are American citizens who were born here or who came here and followed the rules to become citizens. She needs to take a civics class to understand who are criminals, who can and cannot vote, and how the Constitution is structured to guarantee the rights and freedom of real citizens, not illegal and thus, criminal immigrants. 

2) Many times she seems to exhibit ADD symptoms, veering aimlessly from point to point or not being able to stay on topic. It is tough to say whether she has a focus problem or so wants to make another point, unrelated to the current discussion, that she jumps to another topic altogether, and most of the time totally misunderstanding either the topic at hand to the topic she jumps to.

Combining this lack of focus with her tendency to make up number and realities, is really comical and sad in that she is actually a member of Congress:

• Former Wells Fargo CEO Tim Sloan was recently in front of Congress, trying to explain how his company,Wells Fargo,had screwed up so badly in any number of different areas regarding banking topics.
• Certainly a legit topic for Congress to investigate given that Wells Fargo had gone wild in signing up its customers for services and products these customers did not want it did not know that Wells Fargo employees had enrolled them into without their knowledge.
• But out of nowhere,on a totally unrelated topic, a topic that turned out to be a non-reality, Ocasio-Cortes accuses Sloan of financing companies that make cages to house illegal immigrant children: "Why was the bank involved in the caging of children and financing the caging of children to begin with?" Ocasio-Cortez asked, in a reference to Trump’s zero-tolerance immigration policy, which resulted in separations of adults suspected of criminal activity from the minors who accompanied them (even though Democrat Barack Obama had done the same thing).
• She continued to ramble on this unrelated topic that was not on the committee's agenda: "You were financing, involved in debt financing in CoreCivic and GEO Group, correct?"
• But she was wrong since in a public statement, CoreCivic said her assertions were dead wrong: "We don’t provide housing for any children who aren’t under the supervision of a parent," the spokesperson said. "We also don’t operate shelters for unaccompanied minors, nor do we operate border patrol facilities. Any assertions to the contrary are patently false and misinformed."
• Geo Group was even more brutal in their rebuttal of her false claims: "This is a deliberate lie driven by an agenda aimed at abolishing ICE, knowing that we have nothing to do with passing, setting, or advocating for or against immigration laws or policies. Our company has never managed facilities that house unaccompanied minors, and we have played no role with policies related to the separation of families. In fact, our Karnes Family Residential Center allows for families to be cared for together and was established by the Obama Administration in 2014. The contractual services we provide for ICE today are no different than the services we provided for eight years under the Obama Administration.”
• Sloan himself denied her accusations.
• But not content to make a fool out of herself on the cage idiocy and falsehood, she went on to blame the bank for climate change saying the bank was "responsible for the damages incurred by climate change" because of its financing of fossil fuel companies, such as reinvestment costs.

It is really tough to take her seriously. She throws out statements that she claims are facts that are wrong. She cannot stay on topic, just going off topic to pontificate on other nonsense that she usually gets wrong. So sad that she actually votes on legislation, legislation that she probably doesn't understand or care to understand given her scatterbrained performance to the press and in Congressional hearings.

3) Following up on the ADD theory, sometimes she really needs to follow an old adage: “Better to remain silent and thought ignorant than to speak up and remove all doubt.” She would look so much smarter if she would just not talk. More importantly, not talk at the wrong time and saying the wrong thing.

Unfortunately, there was a recent mass shooting in New Zealand where many Muslims were killed by a deranged person while at their mosques:

• It was a horrible, horrible incident that makes you shake your head. 
• Many people expressed their sincere remorse and sent hopes and prayers to the families who lost loved ones and the survivors.
• There is absolutely nothing wrong with providing emotional support to those in need at a difficult time in their lives, it is the decent, humane thing to do.
• Unless you are Ocasio-Cortez who could not let it go and decided to interject her political views into this delicate situation in a gross and self serving way.
• She tweeted out the following tweet while the hurt and anguish was still fresh:” At 1st I thought of saying, “Imagine being told your house of faith isn’t safe anymore. But I couldn’t say “imagine.” Because of Charleston. Pittsburgh. Sutherland Springs. What good are your thoughts & prayers when they don’t even keep the pews safe?”
• Again, please shut up, if you have no human decency to keep your political aims quiet during this time than you do not deserve to hold any kind of leadership role.
• While she thought giving thoughts, prayers and support to these folks was useless many others around the world disagreed with her:
• Dana Loesch of the NRA: “Pretty sure thoughts and prayers isn’t anyone’s phrase, and prayer especially (which you mocked earlier after what happened in a house of prayer?) is a real action, a petition to, a conversation with, God — in this case, to request protection, comfort for those suffering.”
• Tim Young: “If one of your first 1000 thoughts after a horrific mass shooting is to go dunk on a person, a religious belief or an organization on Twitter, you should delete your account.”
• Queen Elizabeth issued a statement saying that her “thoughts and prayers are with all New Zealanders.”
• The Pakistan prime minister said that “prayers go to the victims and their families.”
• A senior Pakistan official, Saeb Erekat, offered his “prayers and tears” for those affected.
• The foreign minister of the United Arab Emirates said his “thoughts and prayers are with the families of the victims.”

So a lot of more important, smarter, and more worldly people knew to offer support to other humans when that is what is needed. Ocasio-Cortez is not nearly as important, not nearly as smart, and not nearly as compassionate as these folks. 

Again, Congresswoman, better to remain silent and thought ignorant than to speak up and remove doubt. Whether that is jumping into a mourning world, not understanding the simple definition of the unemployment rate, not knowing what the three branches of our government are, not understanding a simple Pentagon audit report, etc., etc just keep quiet.

Unfortunately she doesn't know how to remain silent and that provides fresh idiocy, insanity, and fodder for this theme in this blog. All of which reminds us how broken our election processes have become if this type of person actually gets to vote on Federal legislation.

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

The Horrors and Destruction that Donald Trump Has Imposed On America...Just Kidding! Part 3

Before we start today’s discussion, let’s review my voting history: 

• I have never voted for a Republican for President in my life. 
• Thus, I did not vote for Trump. 
• I have rarely voted for a Republican for national office in my life. 

A year ago, many liberals, Democrats, and millenials were besides themselves with grief and fear because their pre-ordained queen, Hillary Clinton, was not elected President. Instead, Donald Trump was elected, an individual that these same people despised, hated, and feared, an individual they felt would endanger and possibly destroy the country and our democracy. For the past year they fretted, worried and lashed out at anything or anyone that even remotely smelled of Donald Trump.

Given that Trump has been in office for a year and we are at the end of that calendar year, I thought, that as someone who did not vote for him, it would be a good idea to review the horror, trauma, and terrible things that Trump has subjected the country to in just one short year. The first two posts we did on this topic identified 62 things that have happened since Trump became President:

https://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2017/12/the-horrors-and-destruction-that-donald.html

https://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2017/12/the-horrors-and-destruction-that-donald_31.html

The following list adds to those initial 62 successes:

1) After a two year increase in big city murders in the last two years under the Obama administration, the country’s overall murder rate in big cities declined in 2017 under Trump with New York City experiencing 290 murders, the lowest number since 1951, and Los Angeles having its 8th consecutive year in which murders were under 300.

2) Under the Trump economy, the African American unemployment rate has fallen to the lowest level in at least 45 years, 6.8% according to CNBC reporting and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

3) According to Reuters, the US economy in Trump’s first year as President added 2 million jobs despite the depression of job creation because of the hurricanes of 2017.

4) Many of the new jobs were in higher paying industries such as construction, professional and business services, and manufacturing vs. lower paying retail industry which saw a slight loss in jobs.

5) According to Paul Bedard, reporting for the Washington Examiner on January 4, 2018, the number of companies that have given bonuses to their employees, increased their charitable donations, or reinvested into their company as a result of the Trump tax cut is now over at least 100 companies including, but limited to:

1. We have previously covered how AT&T, Boeing, Fifth Third Bank,Wells Fargo, and Comcast have given employees and charities billions of dollars from the Trump tax cuts.
2. AAON — $1,000 bonus checks to 2,000 employees.
3. AccuWeather – year-end bonuses to all employees. (Approx. 450 – 500 employees)
4. Aflac – increase 401(k) match from 50% to 100% on the first 4% of compensation plus one-time $500 contribution to every employee’s 401(k); $250 million increase in overall U.S. investment.
5. American Airlines — $1,000 bonuses for every employee (excluding officers). The bonuses will total $130 million. AA had 127,600 employees as of Sept. 2017.
6. American Bank – $1,000 bonuses for 60 employees
7. American Savings Bank – $1,000 bonuses to 1,150 employees; base wage increase from $12.21 to $15.25
8. Americacollect – $300 - $500 bonuses for 250 employees
9. Aquesta Financial Holdings — $1,000 bonuses to 95 employees; base wage hike to $15 per hour
10. Associated Bank – $500 employee bonuses (exact number receiving bonus unknown at this time); base wage will rise from $10 to $15 per hour
11. Bank of Hawaii – $1,000 bonuses to 2,074 employees; base wage increase from $12 to $15
12. Bank of the Ozarks – Bonuses of up to $1,200 for 2,300 employees
13. BB&T – $1,200 bonuses for 27,000 employees; base wage will rise from $12 to $15 per hour; $100 million in charitable donations
14. Canary LLC – due to tax reform, the company will hire more employees and increase capital spending.
15. Central Pacific Bank – all 850 employees will receive $1,000 bonuses; base wage will rise from $12 to $15.25
16. Citizens Financial Group — $1,000 bonuses for 12,500 employees and $10 million for charitable donations
17. Comerica Bank — $1,000 to 4,500 non-officer employees; base wage increase to $15 per hour
18. Community Trust Bancorp — $1,000 bonuses for full time employees and $500 bonuses for part-time employees (exact number receiving bonus unknown at this time)
19. Copperleaf Assisted Living – $200 - $600 bonuses for 175 employees
20. Dayton T. Brown Inc. (engineering/testing company) — $400 bonuses for each of the 210 employees
21. Delaware Supermarkets Inc. — $150 extra bonuses to 1,000 non-management personnel.
22. Express Employment Professionals — $2,000 bonuses to more than 200 non-executive employees
23. First Hawaiian Bank – $1,500 bonuses to 2,264 employees; base wage increase to $15
24. First Horizon National Corp. – $1,000 bonuses to 4,000 employees
25. Gate City Bank — $1,000 hand-delivered bonus checks to 538 non-management personnel; $500,000 higher charitable giving; $500,000 worth of free home appraisals.
26. INB Bank — $500 bonuses to 200 employees. The bonuses will exclude the Senior Management Team. The base wage will be raised to $15 per hour
27. Kansas City Southern — $1,000 bonuses. (Exact number receiving bonus unknown at this time; the company employs 6,485)
28. Melaleuca – all 2,000 employees will receive a $100 bonus for each year they have worked at the company
29. National Bank Holdings Corporation – $1,000 bonuses for employees making less than $50,000 (exact number receiving bonus unknown at this time)
30. Nationwide Insurance — $1,000 bonuses to 29,000 employees; increased 401(k) matching contributions for 33,000 employees
31. Navient – 98% of Navient’s 6,700 employees will receive a $1,000 bonus (approx. 6,566 bonus-eligible employees)
32. Nelnet — $1,000 bonuses for 4,100 employees
33. OceanFirst Financial Corp. – base wage increase to $15 per hour
34. Ohnward Bancshares — $1,000 bonuses for all 260 employees
35. Pinnacle Bank — $1,000 bonuses for 1,007 employees
36. PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. — $1,000 bonuses to 47,500 employees; an additional $1,500 in employee pension accounts; base wage hike to $15; $200 million charitable contribution
37. Regions Financial Corporation – base wage increase to $15 per hour; $40 million in charitable donations; $100 million in capital expenditures
38. Rush Enterprises – $1,000 bonuses for all 6,600 employees
39. Sinclair Broadcast Group — $1,000 bonuses for 9,000 employees
40. Southwest Airlines — $1,000 bonuses for all 55,000 employees; $5 million additional charitable donations
41. TCF Financial Corporation — $1,000 bonuses for full time employees; $500 bonuses for part time employees (exact number receiving bonus unknown at this time);
42. The Flood Insurance Agency — $1,000 bonuses for 17 full time employees
43. Territorial Savings Bank — $1,000 bonuses to 247 employees; base wage hike from $11.25 to $15.00 per hour
44. Turning Point Brands, Inc. — $1,000 bonuses for 107 employees
45. Unity Bank – all 200 non-executive employees will receive a $750 bonus
46. U.S. Bancorp – $1,000 bonuses for 60,000 employees; base wage hike to $15 per hour; $150 million charitable contribution

This list does not include the hundreds if not thousands of small and medium sized businesses that are also rewarding their employees, their charities, and their operations with increased benefits and rewards. And remember, these bonus payments are also in addition to the lower tax levels that the Trump tax cuts will incur for over 100 million working Americans and their families.

To see Mr. Bedard’s entire article that also includes the press releases praising the tax cuts go to the following link:

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/over-100-companies-giving-trump-bonuses-after-tax-victory-tsunami-building/article/2644944
So for those of you that feared the end of the world with Trump’s election, here is a list of more 49 Trump benefits and accomplishments to go with the list of 62 accomplishments we published a few days ago. Let’s be honest Trump haters, he has done a pretty good job in just the first twelve months of his term.

Given your gross error in judgement relative to Trump, let me ask that you to do us all a favor by implementing the following changes in your behavior and attitude:

• Chill out, tamp down your TDS affliction. No matter how much you hate Trump on a sexist, personal basis, get over it. He is the legally and duly elected President, he will be around for a while so refocus your hatred on more constructive issues and matters. You will live a lot longer if you take your hatred out of your heart and soul and devote it to something positive.
• I would really appreciate it if some of you would apologize to the Trump voters you have disrespected in some of the grossest terms possible over the past year. You have called millions of voters racists, ignorant, stupid, Nazis, KKK members, and other horrible names simply because you disagreed with their voting choice. No American should be called such disgusting names simply because they exercised their Constitutional rights to the best of their abilities. Plus, slandering over 60 million Americans is no way to unite the country and get it focused on the real issues facing us all.
• More personally, I would like, no I am demanding, an apology from some of you for your slanderous and disgusting name calling because in doing so, you insulted and disrespected my sister, my family members, my friends, and my co-workers who simply voted their conscience. I will defend their right to vote anyway they wanted and will no put up with your childish and vicious venom and bile directed at them, very important people in my life
• And finally, I challenge you to read the following blog post, a post that shows quite clearly that it was hateful people like some of you and your silence during the Obama years that actually caused Trump to be elected. Thus, the people you hate for voting for Trump are actually looking back at you in the mirror:

https://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2016/03/how-american-liberals-and-washington.html

If you were silent in the dozens of instances listed in this post then you were responsible for the very thing you hate: a Trump Presidency. Or put another way, a so far successful and productive Trump Presidency. Over 100 accomplishments in less than a year is not too shabby despite many of wanting both Trump and the country to fail.

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 2, Political Class Insanity: A Corrupt Governor, A Busybody Mayor, and An Ignorant Mayor

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) It is no secret that most politicians are ignorant idiots when it comes to economics. They have no common sense, do not learn from their past mistakes, and continually are surprised when their ill conceived economic plans and actions do not work out. Consider the latest insanity as documented by the Red State Watcher website:

• Philadelphia mayor, Jim Kenney, was a big supporter of a soda tax that his city enacted for soda sales within the city limits.
• As a result, rather than seeing a nice increase in city tax revenue, soda sales have dropped by 30-50% within two months after the city soda tax took effect.
• Of course, rather than blaming himself for a stupid tax, he is blaming the soda industry, too ignorant to realize that consumers would simply just go outside of the city limits to purchase less expensive soda that was not as heavily taxed: "I didn't think it was possible for the soda industry to be any greedier. … They are so committed to stopping this tax from spreading to other cities, that they are not only passing the tax they should be paying onto their customer, they are actually willing to threaten working men and women's jobs rather than marginally reduce their seven figure bonuses."
• But it is not just tax revenue that is affected since one of the city’s largest soda distributors says it will cut its workforce by 20% because of the revenue shortfall caused by the city soda tax.
• An owner of six ShopRite stores in Philadelphia says he expects to shed 300 workers this spring.
• The Shoprite owner has had to cut 6,000 employee hours since January and not only are his soda sales down but overall sales are also down as people buy what groceries they need elsewhere when they go elsewhere to purchase their soda.
• “People are seeing sales decline larger than anything they’ve seen up to this point in the city,” said Alex Baloga, vice president of external relations at the Pennsylvania Food Merchants Association.
• Bob Brockway, who is the chief operating officer of Canada Dry Delaware Valley, which distributes about 20 percent of the city’s soft drinks, said its sales were down 45% in Philadelphia and that the company will lay off 20% of its workforce the first week in March.
• While the city expected to collect $7.6 million from the soda tax, early returns are showing a monthly tax stream that is likely around $2.3 million, one third the expected revenue, likely because people are not stupid even if politicians are.
• As expected, soda distributors and retailers just outside of the city limits have seen their soda sales spike upward.

So let’s review: the tax is not coming close to hit its target collection rate, city soda sales have been driven to sources outside of the city, causing financial hardship on businesses that sell soda in the city, retailers are hurting not only because of decreased soda sales but also overall sales, and Philadelphia workers are losing their jobs as a result. Typical politician’s failed economic reasoning and program. Insane.

2) Based on recent comments by New York City mayor, Bill DeBlasio, it appears that all of New York City’s problems have been solved. The crime rate must have dropped substantially, the homeless problem has finally been resolved, New York City schools are doing a great job education the city’s kids, all of the infrastructure problems have been repaired, it must be great to live in such a city that has not issues or crises.

I say all this because, according to a recent article by Kerry Picket of the Daily Caller, DeBLasio had enough spare time on his hands to write a letter to Wells Fargo CEO Timothy Sloan, in which he said he wanted to “express my deep concern about your involvement, and the involvement of other banks, in financing the Dakota Access Pipeline,” noting his concern is partly based on being a Mayor of a “coastal city threatened by climate change.” In addition, De Blasio said the pipeline would violate “human and tribal rights of the Standing Rock Indian Reservation” and would have “negative environmental consequences” to the land and water of the area.

So that is why I assume that all of New York City’s problems have been solved since this politician has the time to worry about and take action relative to an issue probably about 1,500 miles away from his constituents on an issue that probably 99% of his citizens do not even know exists. Pathetic set of priorities and totally insane for an east coast mayor to take time out from his own city’s problems to stick his nose in a far away problem that he is probably pretty ignorant about to begin with.

3) Politicians’ insanity does not only include ignorance on a whole range of subjects but also encompasses plain old corruption. Consider a corruption article by Ethan Barton writing for the Daily Caller website:

• Oregon Governor, Kate Brown and her husband, recently stayed at a hotel and casino which is okay, who cares what someone does on their time away from the job.
• However, the problem is the Oregon taxpayers paid for their stay, the governor got a $5,000 donation for her political campaign, and later got eleven times as much of a campaign donation from that same hotel and casino when she came out in opposition to a competing casino.
• According to Mr. Barton: “The Democratic governor visited the Seven Feathers Resort – a hotel and casino owned by the Cow Creek Band of the Umpqua Indian Tribe – for a “government to government summit,” Brown’s official calendar shows. The trip included a “private breakfast with tribal chairs” on Dec. 16, 2015, and she charged her $212 hotel stay to Oregon taxpayers, credit card statements show. The Cow Creek Band donated $5,000 to Brown’s campaign the same day, campaign data shows...Brown announced her opposition in April 2016 to the Coquille Indian Tribe’s efforts to open a new casino. One study predicted that the new Coquille venue would cause Seven Feathers’ revenue to drop 13.2 percent, while the Cow Creek Band estimated a nearly 50 percent decrease, the Mail Tribune reported.”
• But the corruption does not end there since after Brown announced her opposition to the competitive casino, the Cow Creek Band donated an additional $55,000 to her election campaign.
• The ironic thing about this whole sordid affair and the sale of favors for political gain is that Brown became governor after her predecessor had to quit the office of governor for his own corruption and influence peddling.
• Government watchdog group, Open The Books, also smelled something rotten, according to their CEO Adam Andrzejewski: “At arms-length, all of the individual transactions might be completely legal, however, the patterns are troubling. The fact that Kate Brown and staff are not answering questions, exercising an option to remain silent, is further cause for investigation.”
• But the corruption gets even better if you consider that Brown also received a campaign donation from the president of an Oregon company that has already received more than $1 billion in state government contracts with ten of those contracts worth $444 million up for renewal during the governor’s term AND over 200 state contractors have chipped in over $800,000 to Brown and Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum since 2012.

This is just one of many, many examples of the corruption that is eating away at the heart of our democracy. And this problem could be fixed very easily, as outlined in our book, “Love My Country, Loathe My Government,” with either one of two easy steps:

Step 1: only individuals should be allowed to contribute to election campaigns. Unions, corporations, businesses, PACS, Super PACS, and any other non-individual entity should not be able to contribute to election campaigns. When the Founders wrote the First Amendment and included freedom of speech, I am quite sure that they did not want that freedom to extend to Super PACs, that it would apply only to individual citizens.

Step 2 - if a company, union, business, or charity receives any kind of business or money from any government agency, then that company, business, union, or charity is not allowed to contribute to any politician’s election campaign.

If either of these steps and principles were reality, we would not have to worry and experience the corruption and graft that the Oregon governor is wallowing in now.

That will do it for today’s political class insanity: a corrupt governor in Oregon, a mayor that will not mind his own business in New York City, and another mayor who is zero common sense and zero basic economic knowledge. 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:

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

April, 2014 Political Class Insanity, Part 1: Wasting Taxpayer Money In Every Conceivable Way

Every month since this blog began back in 2009, we have spent some time writing about the insanity, idiocy, ineptness, and wasteful spending of the American political class. Back then, we could usually cover all of the insanity in one post. 

However, over the years, it seems as if the politicians in this country have created more insanity and problems at a faster and faster rate. This has pushed the number of days each month required to cover such insanity to more and more over the years.

This month should be no exception. Even though we spent two weeks last month covering the idiocy and fiascos of Obama Care and political class corruption, there is still enough insanity this month to cover at least a week or so of posts. Today starts the process. Hopefully, at the end of this week of insanity you will feel compelled to join our effort to implement term limits at:

www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com

Because really, as you will see from the political class incompetence we will document this week, how much worse could it get with a whole new set of people sitting in elected office?

1) Many Americans like to think that we live in a capitalistic society where companies compete fairly in a free market. That is really not true. We live in a crony capitalistic society where cronies and friends of politicians use and abuse those political connections to get favored treatment at the expense of their competitors of the American taxpayer.

This point was recently driven home by a study from an organization called Open the Books. They issued a new report that went to great effort and detail to document all Federal grants, loans, direct payments, and insurance subsidies that the Federal government and political class hands out at taxpayer expense. The amount of money given to each company is relatively small in the context of the multi-TRILLION Federal budget. But when added up together, we see that the American taxpayer is paying out tens of billions of dollars to some to the largest and least needy businesses on the planet.

For example, according to the website, www.openthebooks.com:

• $21.3 billion was doled out in the form of outright income-transfer subsidies to corporate America last year. 
• On average, each Fortune 100 company received about $200 million in such handouts.
• General Electric received $380 million in taxpayer financed handouts.
• General Motors received $370 million in taxpayer funded handouts.
• Boeing received $264 million in taxpayer funded handouts.
• Archer Daniels Midland received $174 million in taxpayer funded handouts.
• United Technologies received $160 million in taxpayer funded handouts.
• The $21.3 does not include the billions of dollars in housing, bank, and auto-company bailouts in 2008 and 2009 since those payments are kept mostly invisible within the Federal government accounting system.
• It also does not include the asset purchases of the Federal Reserve, indirect subsidies such as the ethanol mandate that enriches large agribusinesses like Archer Daniels Midland, or special tax breaks for wind and solar manufacturers.
• About $8.5 billion of these financial gifts were in the form of taxpayer-subsidized loans. The big winners here were Chevron, Exxon Mobil, Ford Motor Company, and other multibillion-dollar corporations whose franchisees who somehow qualified for Small Business Administration loans despite the financial size and power of their parent companies.
• Archer Daniels Midland, the giant agricultural business, got just under $1 billion for USDA farm-program loans which does not include ethanol subsidies, a fancy name for another form of crony capitalism
• The No. 1 federal insurance program, the Export-Import Bank provides subsidizes insurance and marketing aid to such financial giants as Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase with both receiving more than $3 billion in such aid and Citigroup and Bank of America receiving more than $1.5 billion in taxpayer backstop insurance. (Remember, this doesn’t include TARP bailout money.) 
• John Deere, American Express, and even Walmart have historically reeled in taxpayer funded and backed Federal insurance support as well.
• The National Review Online article from March 27, 2014 that documented these findings pointed out that only one of the Fortune 100 companies did NOT receive taxpayer funded support and crony gifts from the American taxpayer over the time frame that Open The Books studied.

This documented $21.3 billion in crony capitalism/corporate handouts comes out to about $185 for each household in the country. Thus, as you are writing your check this month to pay your Federal income tax bill, remember that $185 of that payment is being used to give political and financial favors to the biggest banks, the biggest companies, and likely the biggest campaign donors to the politicians in Washington. 

It is just so unfair that we cannot claim Wells Fargo, American Express, Exxon and all the others as dependents on our tax forms since they truly are dependents, courtesy of the Washington political class.

2) But it is not just big corporations that the American political class wastes taxpayer wealth on. According to an April 1, 2014 article from the Independent Journal Review, the Federal government has recently spent taxpayer wealth on the following dubious projects:

• $3 million to create a safe street crossing for turtles.
• $137,500 for the creation of a video game called “Layoff.”
• $71,623 to study cocaine use in monkeys.
• $3 million for NASA to study Congress, giving hope that we may finally find out what color the sky is in Nancy Pelosi’s world.
• $15,551 to study drunk mice behavior.
• $544,338 to update the Justice Department’s Linkedin page.
• $17.4 million to install broadband capability to serve 30 people.
• $10,000 to develop a moose-themed musical called “Moosical.”

I dare anyone justify to me these kind of expenditures being worthy of taxpayer money. Useless, wasted spending on programs that do nothing to resolve the half dozen major issues facing the country today.

3) But the Independent Journal Review was not done with just documenting these eight wastes of taxpayer wealth. The day before exposing the above eight atrocities of waste, they identified massive wasteful spending by the National Science Foundation (NSF) in any number of areas that have absolutely minimal impact on the vast majority of Americans

Let’s start with the a Federal funded musical play. The NSF has spent nearly $700,000 of taxpayer money on a “climate change-themed theatrical production” entitled The Great Immensity. The theater company “The Civilians” applied for and won a grant in 2010 to produce the play. According to the musical’s website, The Great Immensity is “a thrilling and timely production,” presented by an “investigative theater company.”

Useless spending. The Federal government, especially one of its primary science agencies, should not be in the mode of financing the production of musical plays on an issue that is far from settled in the minds of many, many Americans, including myself.

This NSF musical funding effort was just one of several questionable expenditures that were recently scrutinized by U.S. Senator Lamar Smith of Texas. He recently interrogated the White House “science czar” John Holdren in a committee hearing about how the NSF is choosing to spend its money. Along with the musical, Smith specifically queried asked Holdren about the following questionable and idiotic NSF projects:

• A $15,000 study on the fishing practices in and around Lake Victoria in Africa. In Africa, not America, Africa. 
• $340,000 study on the examination of the “ecological consequences” of early human fires in New Zealand. In New Zealand, Not America, New Zealand. 
• $200,000 towards a three-year study of the Bronze Age. 
• Another $50,000 towards the survey of archived lawsuits from 17th century Peru. Not this century, not America. Three centuries ago in Peru. 
• $20,000 for a study on the causes of stress in Bolivia. In Bolivia, Not America, Bolivia.

Ridiculous wastes of money. If the Federal government is going to have a national science agency, and I question the need for one given the abject failure of the NSF to recently develop and deliver any kind of useful scientific breakthrough or technology despite spending tens of billions of dollars over the years, shouldn’t the projects it is funding be geared to resolving the major issues of our times?

I can think of seven areas where I would want scientific breakthroughs to happen to address the major issues facing most Americans today:

1. Find a cure for the leading cancers of today such as breast and lung cancer.
2. Find a cure and treatment approach for aging diseases such as Alzheimers and Parkinsons, diseases that will ravage our aging population.
3. Find a way to make coal a clean fuel since most of the world will be using it for decades into the future on a worldwide scale.
4. Find a way to treat addiction to break the deadly hold drug addiction has on millions of Americans.
5. Find a way to make clean energy cheaper, more efficient, and more accessible.
6. Find a way to reduce the ever escalating health care costs in this country since it is now obvious that Obama Care will not be able to resolve that issue.
7. Find a way to make existing and new energy sources cheap, plentiful and clean.

If the NSA could fund research that would solve just these seven issues, most of America would be able to pay their tab. However, the political class has allowed the NSF to waste money in New Zealand, Bolivia, Peru, and Africa on projects that are of absolutely no concern to the American public. That is insanity and that is why the NSF should either get refocused on what is important to Americans or be disbanded and their budget redistributed back to Americans.

That will do it for today, the myriad of ways our politicians have found to waste our money on their business cronies and other stupid porgrams and projects. The insanity is just getting started, much more to follow in the next few days.

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

January, 2014, Political Class Insanity, Part 6: 83 Depressing Facts About Reality, Courtesy Of American Political Class (1-40)

I used to work for a boss who had a favorite saying: “Nothing is as devastating to an opinion than the right number.” Everybody has opinions and perceptions of reality and usually, those perceptions differ from person to person. However, reality never changes as does the proper and accurate numerical description of that reality. 

I keep that in mind when someone declares without hesitation what reality is. Usually, the people that are most sure of reality are either looking through the so-called rose tinted glasses to make their position in life and opinion seem better than it is or they are trying to convince others that things are much better than they are. I can usually burst either of their reality bubbles with the right number delivered in a calm, calculated voice.

This quote came to mind recently because of two articles I read. The first article from my local newspaper, the Tampa Bay Times, proclaimed that the upcoming year of 2014 was going to be quite good, that trends in the country were looking up. As proof of their insight, they laid out five or so trends, with little or no numerical proof, that proved that good times were ahead for the country.

The second article proclaimed a similar upbeat trend, proposing that recent upticks, not surges, in hiring was a precursor to good times for the country in 2014. The writer and his style of writing of that article was an obvious attempt to portray President Obama’s economic policies in a good light, trying to show that he has executed a deft economic strategy to turn the country around.

However, he left out some key numbers, namely that there are about 23 million Americans who are unemployed or under employed, the number of Americans on food assistance are at an all time high (almost 50 million), and that many of the newly created jobs were low paying or temporary jobs. Nothing is as devastating to an opinion than the right number.

In order to really devastate these false positive opinions and perceptions of reality, consider 83 numbers that have recently been put together by the Freedom Outpost website. We will cover the insanity of these numbers of the next two days as part of our monthly political class insanity habit. These 83 numbers have been created by the 500 or so members of Congress and the high ranking members of this Presidential administration. 

After reading them, you will be devastated, guaranteed. We have a lot of work to do in this country before it is too late and I doubt that the insanity the current political class in Washington has dropped on us and our families make them the right people to fix these 83 numbers. However,  until we recognize and acknowledge these 83 facts, we will never be able to eliminate them. And that, would truly be devastating.

The following 83 points of insanity can also be reviewed at the following link:

http://freedomoutpost.com/2013/12/america-serious-trouble-83-examples-2013-prove/#2sb1Qz31MHBTkkjB.99

The nice thing about this link is that they provide a backup link to every one of their depressing 83 numbers so that you can check for their truthfulness of their assertions yourself.

***********************************

The United States is in a massive amount of trouble, and it is time that we all started facing the truth. The following are 83 numbers from 2013 that are almost too crazy to believe…

#1 Most people that hear this statistic do not believe that it is actually true, but right now an all-time record 102 million working age Americans do not have a job. That number has risen by about 27 million since the year 2000.

#2 Because of the lack of jobs, poverty is spreading like wildfire in the United States. According to the most recent numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau, an all-time record 49.2 percent of all Americans are receiving benefits from at least one government program each month.

#3 As society breaks down, the government feels a greater need than ever before to watch, monitor and track the population. For example, every single day the NSA intercepts and permanently stores close to 2 billion emails and phone calls in addition to a whole host of other data.

#4 The Bank for International Settlements says that total public and private debt levels around the globe are now 30 percent higher than they were back during the financial crisis of 2008.

#5 According to a recent World Bank report, private domestic debt in China has grown from 9 trillion dollars in 2008 to 23 trillion dollars today.

#6 In 1985, there were more than 18,000 banks in the United States. Today, there are only 6,891 left.

#7 The six largest banks in the United States (JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley) have collectively gotten 37 percent larger over the past five years.

#8 The U.S. banking system has 14.4 trillion dollars in total assets. The six largest banks now account for 67 percent of those assets and all of the other banks account for only 33 percent of those assets.

#9 JPMorgan Chase is roughly the size of the entire British economy.

#10 The five largest banks now account for 42 percent of all loans in the United States.

#11 Right now, four of the “too big to fail” banks each have total exposure to derivatives that is well in excess of 40 trillion dollars.

#12 The total exposure that Goldman Sachs has to derivatives contracts is more than 381 times greater than their total assets.

#13 According to the Bank for International Settlements, the global financial system has a total of 441 trillion dollars worth of exposure to interest rate derivatives.

#14 Through the end of November, approximately 365,000 Americans had signed up for Obamacare but approximately 4 million Americans had already lost their current health insurance policies because of Obamacare.

#15 It is being projected that up to 100 million more Americans could have their health insurance policies canceled by the time Obamacare is fully rolled out.

#16 At this point, 82.4 million Americans live in a home where at least one person is enrolled in the Medicaid program.

#17 It is has been estimated that Obamacare will add 21 million more Americans to the Medicaid rolls.

#18 It is being projected that health insurance premiums for healthy 30-year-old men will rise by an average of 260 percent under Obamacare.

#19 One couple down in Texas received a letter from their health insurance company that informed them that they were being hit with a 539 percent rate increase because of Obamacare.

#20 Back in 1999, 64.1 percent of all Americans were covered by employment-based health insurance. Today, only 54.9 percent of all Americans are covered by employment-based health insurance.

#21 The U.S. government has spent an astounding 3.7 trillion dollars on welfare programs over the past five years.

#22 Incredibly, 74 percent of all the wealth in the United States is owned by the wealthiest 10 percent of all Americans.

#23 According to Consumer Reports, the number of children in the United States taking antipsychotic drugs has nearly tripled over the past 15 years.

#24 The marriage rate in the United States has fallen to an all-time low. Right now it is sitting at a yearly rate of just 6.8 marriages per 1000 people.

#25 According to a shocking new study, the average American that turned 65 this year will receive $327,500 more in federal benefits than they paid in taxes over the course of their lifetimes.

#26 In just one week in December, a combined total of more than 2000 new cold temperature and snowfall records were set in the United States.

#27 According to the U.S. Census Bureau, median household income in the United States has fallen for five years in a row.

#28 The rate of homeownership in the United States has fallen for eight years in a row.

#29 Only 47 percent of all adults in America have a full-time job at this point.

#30 The unemployment rate in the eurozone recently hit a new all-time high of 12.2 percent.

#31 If you assume that the labor force participation rate in the U.S. is at the long-term average, the unemployment rate in the United States would actually be 11.5 percent instead of 7 percent.

#32 In November 2000, 64.3 percent of all working age Americans had a job. When Barack Obama first entered the White House, 60.6 percent of all working age Americans had a job. Today, only 58.6 percent of all working age Americans have a job.

#33 There are 1,148,000 fewer Americans working today than there was in November 2006. Meanwhile, our population has grown by more than 16 million people during that time frame.

#34 Only 19 percent of all Americans believe that the job market is better than it was a year ago.

#35 Just 14 percent of all Americans believe that the stock market will rise next year.

#36 According to CNBC, Pinterest is currently valued at more than 3 billion dollars even though it has never earned a profit.

#37 Twitter is a seven-year-old company that has never made a profit. It actually lost 64.6 million dollars last quarter. But according to the financial markets it is currently worth about 22 billion dollars.

#38 Right now, Facebook is trading at a valuation that is equivalent to approximately 100 years of earnings, and it is currently supposedly worth about 115 billion dollars.

#39 Total consumer credit has risen by a whopping 22 percent over the past three years.

#40 Student loans are up by an astounding 61 percent over the past three years.

43 more points of devastation and insanity tomorrow, all courtesy of the American political class.

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