February, 2018, Part 2, Political Class Insanity: Much More California Insanity and Political Kickbacks In Missouri

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.

Let's get started:

1)Yesterday we discussed the insanity that the state government of California considering passing a law that would fine and/or jail a restaurant server who gives a plastic straw to a customer who did not ask for it. Straws? Jail time or a fine? We listed out all of the major issues facing Californians (homelessness, poverty, infrastructure, etc.) and pointed out the insanity that state government politicians are instead focusing on plastic straws.

But as a public service we wanted to do a quick follow up to that story to start off today’s insanity. Apparently, it is not just state politicians in California that are obsessed with plastic straws. Local California city politicians in Davis, California and San Luis Obispo, California have ALREADY passed stringent plastic straws in restaurants laws. So great that these local politicians have eliminated all other issues facing their residents and can now move onto the pressing straw issue [sarcasm].

2) Let’s stay in California, always such fertile ground for political class insanity. In the year since Trump became President, many California politicians have been so appalled by this situation that they have threatened to leave the union and have California become an independent country. In my personal opinion, as soon as they pay off their share of the Federal government's national debt they should be allowed to leave.

But now it appears that these politicians that have been threatening to leave the union are not representative of all Californians. There is a movement afoot that seeks to have a large land mass of the state leave the STATE of California, form a new state, and remain a part of the United States:

• According to recent news reports, several efforts are underway to create a new state, “New California,” that would secede from the current state of California and become a new state of the United States.
• New California would consist of the counties across the top of the current state, along the eastern side of the state, and counties along the southern border of the state, leaving the western coastal regions as the only remaining parts of “old” California.

• In fact, some counties, 21 in total, have already publicly declared their independence from the rest of that state in a purely theoretical, non-binding manner.
• In theory if this was to happen, New California would still be a large state with a large land mass, over 10 million residents, and would largely rural.

This effort is admittedly a long shot since both the U.S. Congress would have to approve their application for statehood (which could well happen) but also the state government of California would have to approve their application to leave the current state of California, far less likely to happen in a a state legislation dominated by coastal and entrenched Democrats.

However, this is a great example of how well factions within the American political class have successfully pitted citizens against citizens. Whether it is Democrats in California that want to leave the country or Republicans in California who want to leave California, never has the political class divided the country this much. 

As a result, we continue to bicker amongst ourselves while politicians get rich and never have to accomplish anything significant or resolve any problem as long as they keep out attention on what divides vs. what unites us. Insanity.

3) Let’s keep it rolling for California:

• According to a September 17, 2017 LA Times article by Howard Blume, at that time Governor Jerry Brown was about to sign a very important piece of legislation.
• This legislation, wait for it, was to FINALLY designate an official state of California….dinosaur.
• Yes, 66 million years after it went extinct, the state of California is finally getting around to naming the Augustynolophus morrisi the official state dinosaur in legislation written and sponsored by state senator Richard Bloom because it "is essential to California's society because it nurtures an educational opportunity for the youngest Californians to become interested in paleontology." 

Yes, rather than working on fixing California’s failing public schools and infrastructure, rather than addressing the vast homeless and drug addiction problems, rather than spend time and effort on doing any constructive, it seems that California politicians would rather waste time honoring an extinct animal. This is fresh off their last heavy effort where they worked together to name denim as the official state fabric. Pathetic.

4) Over the past couple of months we have talked about any number of current politicians that have been arrested, prosecuted and convicted of serious, serious crimes. Former Congresswoman Corrine Brown is going to jail for stealing funds from a faux charity she established to help out kids in need. Yesterday, we talked about Joy Cooper, a sitting Florida mayor, that has been arrested by the Feds after an FBI sting operation found her accepting illegal kickbacks.

Today let’s go over to Missouri where we find that:

• Former Jackson County, Missouri executive and prosecutor Mike Sanders entered a guilty plea to a felony charge and is likely to face real jail time.
• The charge was conspiracy to commit wire fraud which involved a plan to steal campaign funds for his personal use.
• According to reporting by the Kansas City Star: “According to papers filed with the court, Sanders and former Chief of Staff Calvin Williford would direct payments from political campaign committees to “strawmen” who claimed campaign work.”
• In reality, these strawmen did no political work for Sanders, they just ended up cashing the checks, laundering the money, and bouncing back funds to Sanders and Wilford.
• In court Sanders admitted illegally pocketing between $15,000 and $40,000 between 2006 and 2014 for his personal use.

Just another fine example of the types of people that populate the current American political class.

That will do it for today’s insanity, most of which was courtesy of the California political class. 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

My State Of The Union Message To My Senator, Bill Nelson of Florida

Readers of this blog know that I have very little regard for most American politicians today, both Republicans and Democrats. But as a result of the despicable behavior Congressional Democrats displayed regarding the Office of the Presidency last night at Trump's State of the Union message, I fired off the following piece of my opinion and disgust to Florida Senator Bill Nelson:

Senator Nelson: 

Let me start off by saying that I have never voted for a Republican for President in my life (I am 64 years old), I did not vote for Trump, and I rarely have voted for a Republican for national office in my life. 

However, having said all of that, I was very disgusted with Congressional Democrats behavior last night at the State of The Union Message. No matter how much Democrats hate Trump, the office of the Presidency should still be respected. By not attending the meeting, by not applauding Trump's, and America's accomplishments over the past year (robust economic growth, low unemployment among all races, a wonderful tax cut that is giving middle and lower class Americans bonuses and lower tax levels, defeat of ISIS, etc.), by checking their emails in the middle of the speech, by looking like sour puss five years old that did not get their way, I can only assume that Democrats are more worried about themselves and their petty, childlike behaviors and temper tantrums than they are of working together to make America a better place. 

You people, Democrats, are being left behind, and unless you and the rest of your party start acting like mature adults rather than petulant toddlers, people like me will basically say screw you in November. I want to work with people that want to make real progress on real issues rather than people that roadblock EVERYTHING, the idiotic, non-productive, and immature tactic that people like Schumer and Pelosi are doing. Ignore at your own reelection risk

February, 2018, Part 1, Political Class Insanity: California's Massive Plastic Straw Problem, Hillary Protects a Sexual Predator,and More

Note: I know it is not February yet but we have a lot of political class insanity to get through this month so I started this month's series a few days early.

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.

Let's get started:

1) Before we get into days and days of politicians behaving badly and stupidly, let’s review some good news out of Washington. Over the past week or so we have reviewed over 100 instances of good stuff that has happened during Trump’s first year. The final post in that series can be accessed at the following link which also contains three other links to the 100+ good things that have happened:

XXXX

Today’s let’s add one more good thing from Trump’s first year of being President:

• Starbucks recently announced that as a consequence of the Trump tax cuts, it is giving its employees pay raises AND stock grants.
• In addition, employees will be able to earn paid sick time off and the company’s parental leave benefits will include non-birth parents.
• The changes will affect 150,000 Starbucks employees.

It does not happen often but when the political class finally does something good, something to benefit Americans, it is worth noting.

2) Okay, back to the sad reality of American politicians. According to a recent Daily Wire article by Ryan Saavedra on January 26, 2018:

• Hallandale Beach, Florida Mayor Joy Cooper was recently arrested by Federal law enforcement officials.
• The charges include money laundering and corruption activities that were identified by an FBI sting.
• According to the officials in charge, the crimes include "money laundering, official misconduct and exceeding limits on campaign contributions, all of which are third-degree felonies. Prosecutors also charged her with soliciting contributions in a government building, which is a first-degree misdemeanor."
• The Florida governor immediately suspended Cooper as mayor of Hallandale Beach.
• It is alleged that Cooper asked for campaign contributions from a developer that was higher than the legal limit, she accepted money she thought was from an unlawful activity, and falsified campaign treasury reports.
• Cooper could face up to five years in jail for each of the felonies she is accused of and one year for the misdemeanor she is accused of.

Again, in this country Cooper is assumed innocent until proven guilty. But really, do we really think the FBI and Federal prosecutors would bring a case against a sitting politician if they were not pretty confident in their work?

3) As everyone probably knows by now, the country has finally awakened to the rampant sexual predator behavior of powerful men that has been going on for a very long time in politics, the mainstream media, and show business. Fortunately, the problem is being recognized and addressed legally and professionally.

Which brings us to our next piece of political class insanity from an article by the New York Times, written by Maggie Haberman and Amy Chozick, on January 26, 2018:

• When Hillary Clinton first ran for President back in 2008, she had a senior advisor on her staff named Burns Strider.
• Mr. Strider was Clinton's faith advisor, a title that I have no idea what it means. 
• But the bottom line is that Strider was accused during that 2008 campaign run of repeatedly sexually harassing a young woman on his staff.
• Given the multiple witnesses to the harassment, the Times article claims there were four witnesses, Clinton’s campaign manager suggested that Strider be fired.
• However, even given the seriousness of the alleged actions, Clinton instead docked him a few weeks pay, ordered him to undergo counseling and moved the woman being harassed to a new job.
• In fact, Strider was hired five years later by Clinton to lead an organization that supported her 2016 Presidential run.
• He was fired from the group several months later for harassing a young female aide.

Given that the press crucified Trump for his known and alleged sexual harassment and grossness, you wonder if that same press and Hillary followers would have been as vocal if they knew that their favorite candidate knew about a sexual predator in her midst and did nothing about it. Note: Strider never did attend the counseling that was requested of him. 

Hypocrisy and another sad commentary on the leadership in this country.

4) Let’s finish up today’s insanity with some really inane and wacked out priorities out in the crazy state of California. Before we get to the latest idiocy, remember some of the things about California that we have recently written about:

• California public schools stink at educating their kids.
• The California state government is facing a mountain of unfunded future financial liabilities that it has little chance of ever fixing.
• California is now the poorest state in the nation when cost of living adjustments are made to income levels and costs of living in the state.
• 40% of Los Angeles residents are so poor that they qualify for Medicaid.
• Like the rest of the country, the state infrastructure is also falling apart.
• It has a massive and growing homelessness problem.

It is a state and a set of state residents that are in very dire straits. But rather than focus on fixing and alleviating these problems that probably touch just about every state resident, the state political class has been working on the following effort:

• According to January 30, 2018 USA Today article, the state government has proposed a law that makes it a crime for a restaurant waiter or waitress to give a customer plastic straw unless that customer requested it.
• If that waiter or waitress did give a customer a plastic straw that was not explicitly requested, that server would then have committed crime and face a $1,000 fine and possibly jail time.
• Ian Calderon is the Democratic assemblyman who wrote the proposed law: “We need to create awareness around the issue of one-time use plastic straws and its detrimental effects on our landfills, waterways, and oceans.”
• And Calderon is not some first time inexperienced legislator, he is the majority leader in California’s lower house.

Sometimes you cannot make up such insanity. And the insanity gets worse because of the following conditions that Calderon put into the proposed legislation:

• He claimed that amendments would be added to the final bill’s wording to remove the threat of a fine or jail time, which begs the question why put the fine and jail time in the bill at all if you are going to negate it with amendments?
• Second, the bill would only apply to sit down restaurants, not fast food businesses or bars, which begs the question what kind of environmental impact are you going to have by reducing the use of plastic straws in restaurants if you eliminate a major chunk of restaurants, besides eliminating the fine and jail time threat? 

So rather than work on fixing failing schools, repairing crumbling infrastructure, reducing the massive homeless problem, fixing the state’s fiscal crisis, this political leader is going to work on passing a law that would fine or jail restaurant servers for giving out unsolicited plastic straws to restaurant patrons….but he was just kidding with the fine and jail time since he would negate those provisions of his law in the law’s amendments...and he was just kidding about the term “restaurants” since he would exempt probably tens of thousands of restaurants, bars and fast food joints, from the law. Wow, one of the most insane pieces of political action we have ever covered.

That will do it for today’s insanity: bad plastic straws priorities, a sexual predator within Hillary’s inner sanctum (wow, that sounds familiar), another potential crooked and corrupt politician, and a little good news for Starbucks workers courtesy of Trump’s tax cuts. Much more insanity to follow in the following 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:


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

The Onrushing State Government Pension Fiscal Crisis and Tsunami

Several days ago we posted a post that discussed the impending fiscal collapse of the state governments in New Jersey and California. These impending collapses are due to the reality that state politicians in those states continued to cater to state government union members in order to get their votes at election time. As a result, we have a system in many states that has a ton of unfunded liabilities based on the promises of robust retirement pensions and health care for retired state government employees and union members. That post can be accessed at:

https://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2018/01/california-and-new-jerseys-impending.html

But according to a National Review article by Lewis M. Andrews on January 26, 2018, these two states are not the only states that have been led to the brink of insolvency by state politicians and that brink is not that far away:

• In Illinois, a recent law went into effect that allows the state Comptroller to seize any Illinois town or country’s share of sales, excise, or other taxes if that town or county does not keep up its pensions payments and contributions.
• This obviously will result in other budget lines of a town or county to go down which will result in less government services to those citizens in those towns and counties.
• For example, Mattoon city officials have already said that they will get rid of ambulance services in order to make up for the lost tax revenue going into pension funding, funding that is half a million dollars more this year than last year.
• Normal, Illinois is going to raise property taxes to make up its pension contribution shortfall.
• East St. Louis, Illinois may see its ENTIRE tax money confiscated by the state to fulfill its pension requirements, leaving it nothing at all for ANY other government service, police, fire, ambulance, schools, etc.
• But the problem of unfunded pension and retirement liabilities, estimated by some to be as high as $6 TRILLION, is not restricted to Illinois, New Jersey and California.
• Florida towns and cities will have to pony up an incremental $178.5 million in the their upcoming budgets to cover their pension liabilities for government retirees.
• The San Diego school district is asking parents of its kids which services they would prefer to get cut in order to make up their contributions to California’s deeply indebted pension system.
• Fulton, Kentucky has already cut back its hospital and ambulance services and still faces an annual $114,000 annual pension shortfall.
• To cover the current deficits, Connecticut would have to raise overall taxes by 14% and New Jersey would have to raise taxes a whopping 26%.

Seriously bad financial conditions and yet rather than fix the root causes of the pension problem, as always, politicians have resorted to tricks, gimmicks, and lies to cover up the impending disasters:

• In 2016, San Francisco’s Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) subway system sought voter approval to bond $3.5 billion in infrastructure improvements even though the needed upgrade was already covered by an ongoing capital fund, causing speculation that the $3.5 billion would be secretly diverted to cover pension expenses.
• Former New Jersey Governor Christie Christie and General Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto agreed to a shell game that made the state lottery an asset of the pension fund which, while it would help reduce the pension fund deficit, it would rob other state government functions of the funds it currently gets from lottery proceeds.
• California Sonoma County voters recently shot down a proposal to increase the sales tax increase because it was suspected the increase would be only funneled into the local pension fund deficit.

And keep in mind these deficits and funding shortfalls have occurred during a record stretch of positive economic results, we have not had a recession in almost ten years. You can imagine what is going to happen when the economy eventually dips into a recession.

Politicians making bad promises that they cannot fulfill just to ensure their careers and cushy pay checks, pensions and benefits are protected and prolonged. It is going to be a rocky ride, probably sooner than later, when it comes to government's reckoning of its fiscal condition and insanity. And not a politician, or leader, in sight, who has the gumption and courage to do the right thing. 

Term limits anyone?

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