The Entire Federal Government is a Sewer. I Blame You!

Yes, you!  I mean you…personally!

It goes without saying that every generation has it's unique flavor.  And with each new generation, the one before voices its disappointment and says theirs was a better generation.  The young ones roll their eyes and think oh sure, like you guys were so great.  But you know, as we watch that cadre - Brokaw's "Greatest Generation" - die away now, any dismay they register with us is probably correct and quite more subdued that we deserve.  They have watched the country they struggled for morph into an unrecognizable creature.

We - I'll say the population under 75 - have watched or participated in the dumbing down and perversion of knowledge and civic duty not seen since the early days of the Soviet Union. (Read The Perversion Of Knowledge: The True Story Of Soviet Science)  We have permitted our political zoo to become so blatantly and nakedly cynical of us that there are now no boundaries on what they can concoct.  And no matter how stupid or harmful the concoction, they get away with it.

Why?  Because we are lazy.  It's easier to just say, damn, there's nothing you can do about it.  Another reason is because we are mind-bogglingly gullible.  Congress is now polling lower in this country than Putin (that's Russian for "Hitler"). But each precinct sends back the same asshole that voted for Obamacare or corn subsidies or No Child Left Behind or nearly a trillion dollars paid to municipal and federal unions or anything having to do with anybody getting married or Dodd-Frank or…, all of which have put us right here economically.  And then we completely lose sight of the economy as well.

Monumental Misdirection

Here's where you have to really start paying attention.  Because the political zoo we have today is playing you for rubes on a scale that that would have made Joe Goebbels proud.  Every week you turn on the TV and see the attention of our politicians riveted on a new "scandal".  They pound podiums, ask probing questions.  Pundits discuss the nuances and mis-steps surrounding each "scandal".  We are left furious that the administration told us Benghazi was a protest about a video, we shake our fists that the IRS claims to have lost files, we shake our heads at the poor treatment of vets.  But here's the thing: these are not scandals, scandalous though they may be.  These are crimes; genuine criminal activity, carried on out by elected officials and federal employees.  These crimes are not alleged.  They were committed.  As allegations, they fall on the heads of the accused.  Members of our government conspired to to do harm to groups or individuals for money or votes.  

Too carried away, is it?  Veterans died while VA administrators cooked the books in order to secure their bonuses.  And they all cooked the books in the same weird way.  So where did the idea originate? Cincinnati?  Do you think that if the head of the Cincinnati office came up with a fraud scheme to cheat the taxpayers and not take care of patients, he'd advertise it, tell everyone what he was doing?  Nope. This fraud was hatched very high up DC.    

We already know that the IRS crimes were not the product of a Cleveland plot as originally claimed by Lerner. (Poor Ohio, these dick heads in DC seem bent on giving that state a bad name)  Nope this was carefully coordinated with senators, the Justice Department and the Obama campaign.  There is one and only one place to pull that off.  I'll give you a hint:  It's not Lois Lerner's office.

Want to talk REAL crime?

One of the first initiatives of the Valerie Jarrett administration started with a fabrication.  There were, we were told, hundreds of guns being sold everyday in Mexico after being purchased here in America. Our guns were the fuel behind the drug wars.  There were a few problems.  We found out in short order that drug dealers and other criminals found guns from overseas were cheaper and easier to get a hold of than anything they could get from the US.  The Mexican government had not claimed, as stated by Jarred's spokes goon Barry, that they almost always found serial numbers of US guns at crime scenes. No one was listening.  I think Americans knew it was bogus.  That wouldn't do at all.  The people had to be made to listen and obey.  So guns were intentionally allowed to walk (enter Mexico without a means to trace them) by law enforcement to create the scrim behind the narrative.  The tail was already wagging the dog.  Then, Oops!  Brian Terry was killed by one of Eric Holder's guns; which is to say Barry Obama's guns.  Caught with their hands in the cookie jar, the Jarrett administration circled the wagons, planned their obstruction of justice against the efforts of congress and had to put off gun control until something else came up.  Terry's death allowed for touching sound bites but no genuine respect on the part of the Imperial Presidency.  Lots of Mexicans were killed with these guns too, but that doesn't seem to matter much at all. 

In Benghazi, it wasn't the crime of 9/11/12 that was the issue.  The White House circus didn't commit a crime that night.  They just plotted out a neat bullshit story while four Americans were dying or were about to.  The crime came later, lying to congress about how the bodies came to be so cold and why they lied about it to begin with.  The administrations actions before and during the attack are a simple matter of incompetence and depraved indifference to the lives of those killed.  The crime is the lying and obstruction. 

Congress swings into inaction!

There should be no question on either side of the aisle, in either house of the legislature, of the need to appoint an omnibus special prosecutor or several prosecutors.  It should simply be a question of which of those two to pick.  

But congress and likely YOUR congressman don't really want that.  They have it easy right now. With very few exceptions, both parties in both houses are using the rhetoric inspired by the crimes that have been committed to avoid actually doing their jobs, passing budgets, getting the federal government out of our lives and pocketbooks or vise versa if you are of a big government persuasion.  Most important, by chattering at microphones, they avoid dealing with the crimes about which they chatter.  By paying lip service to the "scandals" they avoid doing anything that requires taking a real stand and the rubes back home think they are doing their jobs.  They are safe from real repercussions because in at least one case, possibly two, the Attorney General is up to his eyeballs in the crimes himself.  The previous Secretary of State is a culprit in one, the heads of the IRS in another and to one extent or another, the President (the one we elected) is a party to all, if only by neglect or providing the motivation for each crime.  In the case of the Benghazi coverup and Fast and Furious, I'd say he was probably one of the main perpetrators.  

With mealy-mouthed Harry Reid in between the perps and those who should  be calling for criminal charges, the whole cast can play out their feigned anger for TV cameras and never actually do anything that would require leadership or the cashing in of any political chips.  Certainly the cowards Boener and McConnell aren't going to rise to the occasion.

…And a bonus.  No one is bugging these guys about the economy.

If they're the assholes, why am I mad at you?

Simple, my lazy friend, you continue to elect these monuments to muck.  

"But, Cyrano, I don't like these guys any more than you do."  

Great. Do you vote?  

"Sometimes."  

Do you volunteer for candidates and causes you believe in, do you write your congressman, the local newspaper?  Do you even read a newspaper?  Do you talk to anyone in office about what pisses you off?

"Well…"

Well, then, you are responsible.  It is considered politically chic to say that you hate these politicians and to spout your own point of view.  "But it doesn't make any difference," you say, so you won't waste any of your incredibly cool time to wait in line to vote.  Thanks to you, these ass faces inside the beltway feel no sense of accountability.  That's on the left and the right!  They are laughing at you every single day for how easy they have it.  Funny, the "you" I am speaking to is often the guy I hear saying we should do away with the electoral college and certainly doesn't understand the value of having states appoint senators vise a popular vote.  For the hyper morons in the room, states used to appoint our senators.  But it didn't feel good.

That doesn't speak too poorly of you.  Most people don't understand the correct need to follow constitutional law or even why the constitution says what it says.  No matter; there are people in high office right now who belong in a cage.  The rest perpetuate the criminals' imperial reign.  Some will read this, some even enjoy it, and click on the next thing that pops up.  Others will get riled up for about a minute, maybe yell at their spouses about it.  Very few will take much from it.  So…I guess it's true. It doesn't make a difference.  That's your fault, too.

A Cautionary Tale; Irresponsibility and Corruption.

Economics is a simple discipline.  It's people who EFF it up.

There is a school of thought that says by letting the value of the dollar slip again and again, we keep the price of our goods down, increasing foreign trade.  You don't want a trade deficits, right?

Well, who the hell cares?  Markets come and markets go.  Exporting goods isn't the only means of creating revenue in this country.  It is only when you form partnerships between chosen businesses and the government (subsidized pricing, protectionism, dollar devaluation) that everything goes to hell. The decline of the dollar helps only dishonest people in the larger scheme of things.

(Reminder:  I am a free market conservative.  I am not ranting about the 1% here.  I don't begrudge anyone their money, honestly earned.  This is about crony capitalism and economic ignorance.)

What people don't get is that foreign trade is not all we do as an economic power.  We do more business inside our own borders than anywhere else.  And the value of goods argument is a phony argument.  There are trade-offs to having a strong dollar and a week one.  Better to let markets rise and fall as they naturally would.  A strong dollar is a strong dollar everywhere, including inside the United States. If deficits run too high, countries that sell us things will find themselves with full warehouses and have to adjust their prices or reduce their exports to the US.  It all works itself out on its own.  But when you have government patrons using phony arguments to prop up exports, the results are not as they are advertised.  The long-term damage to the dollar will kill many times more jobs and shrink far more incomes than trending trade (im)balances.

Same Ignorance, Different Scale

There is a similar scam being touted by local politicians throughout the country.  It has been a rising trend for years, but in some places it is becoming a real nightmare.

This story takes place in a once-sleepy Spotsylvnia County.  Located in Virginia, near Fredericksburg, it is a place steeped in Civil War history.  For a long time, folks who didn't mind a 60 - 90 minute commute from Washington DC could find a nice place to put down roots at a price far lower than what they would pay nearer the city.

During the housing boom, pre-2008, the whole area including neighboring counties exploded with no planning at all.  As some counties began to see the writing on the wall and get a handle on their growth, Spotsy, as it is called by locals, continued on a reckless trajectory.  The Board of Supervisors, peopled by developers and builders and/or friends of developers and builders, has not met a residential or real project they didn't like in years.  The exceptions, of course, are projects that might park a Walmart across the street form places like Fawn Lake and Bloomsbury Farm Estates.  But to plop more retail and apartment and houses anywhere else? No problem.  This has all been done with no consideration for the exponentially expanding traffic on the Interstate 95 corridor.  In fact, it is often done while pretending not to realize the problem they are intentionally contributing to.

Case in Point…

In recent years, it would be nothing unusual to spend two to two and a half hours making a commute from exit 166 to exit 126 on I-95.  3 hours is not unheard of.  4 hours on a summer Friday is common. This to travel 40 miles on a major freeway.  All of this is due to rampant development without a plan to provide the required infrastructure.  In a move demonstrating obtuseness on a scale few can imagine, this board of supervisors approved the construction of a raceway.  Old Dominion Raceway is owned by the same (get this) real estate developer who had his raceway kicked out of Manassas, Virginia. After being laughed out of two other proposed locations, he found a friend on the Spotsylvania county board. Arguments were presented by a few concerned citizens against the raceway, with traffic being a major consideration, and by dozens of out-of-town members of the raceway industry telling touching stories of a boy and his go-cart to defend the raceway.  The level of misdirection on the part of proponents was also breath-taking.  One interesting exchange went something like this:

Board Member:  (to the raceway lawyer) How can we be sure you won't contribute to the traffic problems on I-95.

Lawyer:  As you can see on our application, we won't start racing until 7:00PM.  The rush hour will be clear by that time.

Board Member nods.

Here's the obtuse part.  Traffic is still quite healthy at 7:00 PM.  To get to the raceway BEFORE a weeknight event, one would have to leave the DC area from the north and Chesterfield or Williamsburg areas from the south at 4:30 or 5:00, and incrementally later as you get closer to the target.  A quiz for the minimally aware:  What time does rush hour traffic start?  Just this raceway will add thousands of cars to already  packed roads and I-95.  It was amazing to watch the lawyer and board members pretend not to know this.  They all do, of course. But the commuters on I-95, the people who live in Thornburg, at exit 118 (new home of the raceway), and the general population on Spotsy don't grease their elections, pay their honoraria or promise them jobs for after they leave the board.

And the beat goes on?

In late May of 2014, this same board of self-serving misfits voted in thousands of housing units and tens of thousands of feet of retail space in an area near exit 126.  This at a time when we are already seeing soaped up windows of closed retail stores.  They have been approving developments, left and right, for thousands of units for the last two years.

Here's what the board understands completely.  You don't serve your existing citizenry by allowing wild, unplanned development, especially in already congested areas.  You only hurt home values and cause more congestion.  It is sold as "progress".  But what it is - is crony capitalism.  And Boss Hogg runs the show.

The real way you bring up standards and home values and income and quality of life in a community is by setting very high standards for development, especially in congested areas.  And in some areas, stop building altogether.  By just allowing unchecked development to run amok, you do to housing what the Fed does to the dollar.  You devalue it.  And for their pain, the citizens are rewarded with more traffic.

Don't be an ass for these people, locally or nationally.

I called this a cautionary tale.  This isn't just happening in Spotsy.  In Spotsy, real estate development is not the only business in town and foreign trade isn't the only economic mechanism at work in America. And it isn't just real estate or the dollar being destroyed.  Look at every single case of "government and the business community coming together for the common good" and you'll find people trying to suspend the laws of economics, which are as real as gravity, and making a mess of our economy FOR THEIR OWN GAIN.  Whether it's sugar subsidies, Obamacare, green energy "initiatives",… the rule of thumb will ALWAYS be a harder life for the people who it is supposed to help and money for the winners picked by the government.  And it is happening everywhere.

Sadly, the people of Spotsylvania County don't read the paper.  They already hate the existing traffic pattern.  But when all these plans come into being, they will be shocked. "How can this happen?", they'll ask.  But it won't matter.  When the county board was planning, intentionally, to make their lives harder, the citizens were blissfully ignorant.  Don't let this happen to you.  Read your local paper, watch local news and GO TO COUNTY AND MUNICIPAL MEETINGS.  When the citizens are looking out for what is good for them, less of this stuff happens.  It wouldn't hurt to keep an eye on the lunatics inside the beltway while you're at it.