A Question; An Observation, and An Outrage

On the 26th of December, Bernie Sanders sent the following Tweet:
Bernie Sanders @SenSander
"You have families out there paying 6, 8, 10 percent on student debt but you can refinance your homes at 3 percent. What sense is that?"

The question: Can Senator Sanders really be so economically illiterate?

Senator, loans backed by assets have lower rates because they are lower risk. If you default on your mortgage, they bank can take the house. If you default on your student loan, can the government confiscate your brain?

The Observation
I saw an article the other day reposted on Facebook from the liberal online site www.manymanyadventures.com entitled, "The Top 7 Countries To Move To If Donald Trump Becomes President".
Here is the list:

7. Ecuador

6. Bahrain

5. New Zealand

4. Germany

3. Luxembourg
2. Singapore 

1. Switzerland

 

These type articles and "I'm moving" claims always make me laugh. All are pretty nice places to be sure but there are just a couple problems. One is most Americans can't speak a foreign language and 6 of these 7 are non-English speaking countries. People speak English there but it isn't the first language. Good luck Yank!

 

The other is most Americans have never lived outside the U.S. or even traveled to a foreign country (No, an all inclusive week at Sandals in Jamaica doesn't count) nor do they even have a passport. I'd also be willing to bet they couldn't pick out any of these countries on a world map.   

 

No, none of these people ever actually leave the country but we can still hope, can't we?

 

The Outrage

US Attorney declines prosecution of former VA execs  Published December 29, 2015 Associated Press http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/12/29/us-attorney-declines-prosecution-former-va-execs.html

Federal prosecutors have decided not to press criminal charges against two former executives at the Department of Veterans Affairs who were accused of manipulating the agency's hiring system for their own gain. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia said Thursday it has declined a referral from the VA inspector general for criminal prosecution of Diana Rubens and Kimberly Graves. The inspector general said in a report this fall that Rubens and Graves forced lower-ranking regional managers to accept job transfers against their will. Rubens and Graves then stepped into the vacant positions themselves, keeping their pay while reducing their responsibilities. Rubens had been earning $181,497 as director of the Philadelphia regional office for the Veterans Benefits Administration, while Graves earned $173,949 as leader of the St. Paul, Minnesota, regional office. Before taking the regional jobs, Rubens was a deputy undersecretary at the VA's Washington headquarters, while Graves was director of VBA's 14-state North Atlantic Region. Rubens and Graves were accused of obtaining more than $400,000 in questionable moving expenses through a relocation program for VA executives, the inspector general's report said. The U.S. Attorney's office said it has "referred the matter to the VA for any administrative action that is deemed appropriate." Rubens and Graves were demoted in November, but their demotions were rescinded this month after a paperwork mix-up. The VA has said it will reissue the demotions after the problem is resolved.

In a conversation with a friend, I predicted this would happen. I wish I had written about it in this blog at the time.  So they were demoted? Big deal! They should have been fired and sent to prison!!! It has also been reported that the government can't do anything to recover the $400,000 these two embezzled and will probably eventually be permitted to retire with all their benefits.
This is like something from a Third World Banana Republic - there is no rule of law in America anymore.

 

 

Just Another Liberal Hypocrite

Bette Midler tweet: “Dec. 22, 2015, 63 degrees in NYC. I would like to thank the ignorant selfish climate deniers for all their goodwill toward the planet.”

Does anyone think rich liberals are going to be inconvenienced or affected one bit by any climate change regulations?  Those are only for the little people!

"Ms. Midler, your gas guzzling limo awaits to whisk you off to Teterboro airport so you can catch your gas guzzling private Gulfstream G-5 jet to fly off to a "champagne wishes and caviar dreams" destination most of us can only dream of."

Be sure to say hi to Al Gore for us when you get there!

American Kleptocracy: Government of the Thieves, by the Thieves, and for the Thieves

During my daily commute to work, I recently finished listening to a very interesting book on CD entitled Thieves of State: Why Corruption Threatens Global Security by Sarah Chayes. I just happened upon it while searching the county library collection to find something interesting to give me a break from the radio. As it turns out, I couldn’t have found this book at a better time.

Ordinarily, Chayes would not be someone with whom I would see eye to eye on the issues. She is an NPR reporter which places her at the polar opposite end of the political spectrum from me. However, her experiences dealing with corruption in Afghanistan and as a consultant trying to help our government develop policy to combat terrorism there and elsewhere as part of a wider global security strategy are very much in line with what I experienced and observed first hand in my overseas service.  Chayes argues that much of the rise of radical Islam is more of a consequence of the peoples’ frustration and sense of hopelessness due to having no recourse to wrongs inflicted on them by their deeply and systemically corrupt governments. Radical Islamists hold themselves and religion up to the common people as the only incorruptible option to combatting corrupt government and establishing justice, harsh though it may be. Her book details the kleptocracies in Afghanistan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Uzbekistan among other places. She also discusses the circumstances leading up to the Arab Spring which began in Tunisia and spread across North Africa and unfortunately it has failed to live up to its promise for the most part. In explaining corruption, she describes its many forms and the characteristics of each. In its most egregious form, the corrupt government is so involved in fleecing their country that they have no interest in governing whatsoever.  It is not until her epilogue that Chayes moves from corruption in the developing world and begins to show how it is growing in the developed countries of the West. This is when I had my epiphany: America’s government has become a kleptocracy. Just as Chayes describes the different methods used by Third World governments to steal from the citizenry, the establishment American political class is no longer interested in good governance. It has become obsessed with enriching itself.

Both Democrat and Republican elected officials (though by different methods: Democrats through “big government” socialism and Republicans through crony capitalism) are completely consumed by the business of corruption and stealing America’s future. Obviously, there is no one-to-one correspondence between how corrupt governments in the Third World operate their kleptocracies and how our corrupt government runs its. One cannot simply connect the dots or draw a straight line through all the data points to prove the model describing our government is a kleptocracy. Our government runs a much more subtle and sophisticated crime syndicate. However, borrowing from mathematics and applying the least squares method to the data point shows that the model that best fits what our government has become is a kleptocracy. Ask yourself the following questions. Why would Republicans pass a massive $1.1 trillion budget that gives their political opponents nearly everything they want? Why would the Republicans wait until September every year to get their budget together and thereby guaranteeing a yearly crisis and threat of a government shutdown? Why do Democrats refuse to enforce existing laws, ignore the massive fraud, waste and abuse that always accompanies the bloated programs they enact, or fail to hold those politically connected accountable for crimes and abuses that would result in lengthy prison terms for ordinary citizens? Why would both Republicans and Democrats (until recently) exempt themselves and their relatives from laws against insider trading which allowed them to make millions in the stock market or accept patronage jobs from big donors for their relatives, friends or themselves following their political careers?  Taken separately, there could be several plausible explanations; taken together, there is only one conclusion – corruption and each party's method of theft allows them to benefit. I could provide specific examples of these and many more but in fairness, given my political leanings, they would all be examples of liberal Democrat abuses. I leave it to the reader to read Chayes’ book and then do their own honest inquiry and I guarantee there are plenty of examples from both sides of the aisle.

Recognizing the problem is important but finding solutions is critical if we want to save America from self-destruction. So what can be done? For starters, I suggest the following:

1. Repeal the 17^th Amendment and return the election of Senators to the State legislatures as they were prior to 1913. This would reduce the influence of donors and make Senator accountable to their States as the Constitution originally intended.

2. End baseline budgeting or the practice of automatically increasing the budget by a set amount every year.

3. Require Congress to pass separate budgets for each department of the federal government instead of lumping them all into an omnibus bill. There are only fifteen departments so there would be fifteen individual and digestible funding bills. This would make it harder to hide questionable spending and prevent disagreements over specific department or agency funding from shutting down the entire government.       

4. Set spending caps on election campaigns. This would reduce the influence money has on politicians and make them more accountable to their individual constituents. This would also put all candidates on a level playing field and heaven forbid…make them demonstrate they can budget and make wise money decisions.

5. Return powers not specifically granted to the federal government under the Constitution back to the individual States as guaranteed by the 10^th Amendment.

6. Institute a waiting period before defeated or retiring politicians can accept a position connected with a donor – similar to the restrictions on other government and military personnel that prevents them from accepting a position from a company over which they had contracting or decision making authority.

I’m sure readers have other ideas. Comment and let others know your thoughts!

This is Why Conservatives Reject Banning Guns

I think it is fair to say that Progressives favor big government and that most of today's Progressives are either 60s and 70s misfits or have been influenced by them. Further, they have embedded themselves in all levels of our government and bureaucracies.

I have often said, "Give them enough time and Progressives will tell you what they really think." The recent statement by the co-chairman of the Colorado ACLU, Loring Werbel, http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN0TV06420151212 that suggests shooting Trump voters before Election Day proves my point. Now of course, Wirbel has said it was a joke and has stepped down.

Back when Obama pal, Bill Ayers, was in the Weather Underground, the FBI infiltrated the group. The undercover agent testified that if the group ever gained power, they planned to create re-education camps (where have we heard that before?) to deal with those who are uncooperative and they were completely comfortable with having to eliminate as much as 1/4 of the American population.

If people like this ever become "the government", who will protect us from "the government"? This is why the Framers insisted on the 2nd Amendment and today's patriots continue to support it. Could it also be why Progressives are so opposed to it? I don't know and I don't want to find out.

Trump Schools All on Negotiating

The hullabaloo surrounding Donald Trump's proposal to temporarily restrict all Muslim travel to the US shows Americans, in general, don't understand negotiating.

Example: If you want to buy a car listed at $15,000 but don't want to pay the sticker price, you need to start with a much lower offer. Of course, the seller acts offended by your unreasonable bid. You get a counter-offer and then you counter, etc until you arrive at some mutually acceptable price. Negotiating 101.

Trump is doing exactly that. He threw out a proposal that he knows full well isn't acceptable to anyone. He has already begun to walk it back a bit - without apologizing. Apologizing would give away the advantage. In the end, the deal that would result would be something more secure than the nothing measures currently in place but certainly far short of banning entry of all Muslims. My guess is it would be something more along the lines of a moratorium on all entry of those from high terrorism threat countries or those who had recently traveled to those areas regardless of what their nationality is.

Those losing their minds over Trump's statement clearly don't understand how this works. Those who continue to support Trump probably don't understand either but they instinctively feel that he would do something more effective then the current bunch of do nothings. It isn't racism or bigotry. It's "The Art of Deal".

ISIS vs ISIL

It has been suggested by some that the use of ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) by the president and his administration is somehow meant to be a poke in the eye to Israel. Maybe but I really don't see it. A much simpler explanation in my opinion is that it is just pretense. We have a very pretentious and professorial man in the White House. It is just his way of continuing the narrative of how smart he is. It is his way of saying, "Hey all you dummies. I know most of you are not smart enough or educated enough to understand the term "Levant". Why don't you look it up. Then maybe you will be smart like me." Another example of  Obama's pretense is the way he pronounces certain words with their foreign pronunciation. Hey just a suggestion but unless you are speaking in that foreign language a la the equally  pretentious, John Kerry, use the English pronunciation. And while you are at it, call the radical Islamists in that region what the rest of the world calls them either ISIS or maybe even DAESH. Drop the pretense for heaven sakes.

Don't Talk About Trump or Hillary Then!

Oscar Wilde once famously said, "The only thing worse than being talked about, is not being talked about."

Since I think much of the support for Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton is based on name recognition rather than their ideas (except for Trump's anti-establishment rhetoric and Hillary's anti-rich rhetoric), the way to oppose them is to stop talking about them.

For those concerned about who gets the party nominations, I propose supporting someone else rather than expressing opposition to someone. Otherwise, you end up actually supporting who you oppose by reinforcing the name recognition by the low information voters of both parties. Rather than connecting an idea you oppose to a candidate and thereby reinforcing the name recognition, support an alternative idea and be sure to connect that idea to the candidate you like. This would help increase the name recognition of the other candidates.

Yeah, I know I've been just as guilty of this as the next guy.

Let's educate and offer alternatives. I promise to try and do my part!

Intellectual Inconsistency or Is It Just Me?

So there are some in this country, we all know who they are, that have no problem with violating everyone's 2nd Amendment rights when they advocate confiscating all guns but become apoplectic at the notion of "Stop and frisk" because it might violate the 4th Amendment rights of a few?

Is it me or does this seem to be intellectually inconsistent? What is especially troubling to me is mayors like Martin O'Mally and Mike DeBlazio ended the highly successful "Stop and frisk" programs in Baltimore and NewYork City which has resulted in a huge spike in homocides. It makes me wonder if stopping gun violence is actually the goal.

Why Doesn't Truth Matter To Some Anymore?

61% of potential voters say they associate Hillary Clinton with the words dishonest, liar, and untrustworthy. Why then is she still the Democrat primary front runner? Why are so many people willing to support her?

Could it be that we are arriving at a point in the U.S. where instead of truth leading to ideology that then results in policy, we are allowing some to use ideology to create "truth" and then implement policy.

This is a truly dangerous development indeed!

Ideological Blindness on Rise in America

Disease and injury are the typical causes of blindness but there is a new source of blindness on the rise in America - ideology.

Ideological blindness manifests itself in things like the following:

The president saying "These things just don't happen in other countries." when responding to the attack in San Bernardino. Apparently, it skipped Mr. Obama's mind that the French crowd before him had just suffered their own horrific attack that left ten times the number of dead and wounded than the U.S. attack; or

It taking American authorities nearly three days to be willing to call the attack terrorism despite clear evidence available early on such as huge ammunition stores, a dozen pipe bombs, numerous weapons, in the attackers home and the attacker arriving in full assault gear; or

It continuing to insist that climate change is a bigger threat than radical Islam; or

Citizens seeing suspicious activity but being afraid to say anything for fear of being accused of profiling as was the case with the neighbors of the attackers; or

The president calling for more common sense gun laws and citing the fact that current laws allow those on the terrorism "no fly" list to legally buy a firearm in the U.S.. Why would anyone rational person have any faith that the system that allowed this to happen in the first place is the same system that can fix it?

American needs to have the ideological scales plucked from its eyes before it is too late.