Category Archives: Government

Government’s Main Function: The Transfer Of Money

Mitt Romney told the truth in the 2012 campaign about the 47 percent. If anything, he underestimated the severity of the Taker Problem in U.S. society. Writes Jeffrey Dorfman:

“Mitt Romney aimed low in his famous remark. We are now well past a majority in terms of how many people are net receivers from the government. The coalition of voters who have an economic interest in voting for more goodies from the government is over 70 percent and growing.”

AND, “… in 2010 the top 40 percent of families paid 88 percent of all taxes—and that is all taxes, not just income taxes.”

In case you’ve forgotten, “During the 2012 presidential campaign … Mitt Romney was reported to have commented about how 47 percent of Americans were bound to vote for Democrats (or whatever party promised them free stuff) since they did not pay any income taxes. …”

AND, in case you don’t know:

“… about 70 percent of the federal government’s spending is the transfer programs already accounted for. … in actuality around 70 percent of American families are receiving more from the government than they are paying in.”

MORE.

UPDATE IV: Latest Anti-Man Moaning From Menstruation Lobby (‘The Americans’)

Capitalism, Celebrity, Feminism, Film, Gender, Government, Hollywood, Political Correctness

Just for a change, the menstruation lobby is moaning about the movies and its members’ representation therein: “The latest study on women in front of the camera finds that female characters are still significantly under-represented on the big screen. … The numbers for minority females are even lower. African-American female representation on screen climbed to 14%, from 8% in 2011, but down from 15% in 2012.”

Despite the same lobby’s attempt to ban the word, we women are “bossy.”

I control the remote in the house. My husband, however, is happy to allow it, because we like viewing the same things—except that he is more patient and prone to watch foolish female heroes strut their stuff in stilettos and plunging cleavages while chasing the bad guys. He’s been softened. He believes the schtick.

Other than “Olivia” in “Law and Order”—she’s the only believable woman in a tough-cop routine—I can’t watch females as action heroes because it doesn’t make sense. I’m way too wedded to reality to find women believable in these roles.

As for the presence of minorities in movies: it usually signals a two-hour long, oppressive racial lecture. And “I’m no more inclined to turn to ’12 Years A Slave’ for entertainment, than I am to subject myself to Oprah Winfrey and her M.O.P.E. (Most Oppressed Person Ever) ‘Butler.'”

Maybe other viewers are on to this and agree, because it is quite clear that Hollywood is giving viewers what they want to see: men in lead roles. If film executives listened to loathsome Lena Dunham, instead of to the demands of consumers—the industry would go bankrupt.

In any event, Sean and I both like the Metal and Military Channels, “Investigation Discovery” for the gory real-life murder cases, “Law and Order” (Olivia’s awesome), “The Following,” “Criminal Minds” (the horror compensates for the hens), “Justified,” and, I know the category is wrong, but the Oscars belongs to ….

The Americans.

It is simply superb; TV at its best: no politics, surprisingly, no mega movie stars (who usually can’t act); real foreigners playing foreigners (no fake foreign accent, courtesy of Angelina Jolie), and a great script.

Enjoy tonight’s episode.

UPDATE I (3/13): The Following” is ad hoc, make-it-up-as-you-go garbage. But it’s done well-enough to entertain.

UPDATE II: “THE AMERICANS.” The script and story are so good in The Americans, that you don’t root for a political side—the story is remarkably apolitical, given how political is should be, the halmark of good storytelling—you simply get absorbed in the plot. It’s a great spook story. That’s the experience the movies should deliver. Good narrative, good acting, no wagging finger. However, it is pro-American in the subtle, good, non-rah-rah way, as it shows how the couple is living the life while going through the spook motions. It is wonderful TV.

UPDATE III: The script and story are so good in “The Americans,” that you don’t root for a political side—the story is remarkably apolitical, given how political is should be, the hallmark of good storytelling—you simply get absorbed in the plot. It’s a great spook story. That’s the experience the movies should deliver. Good narrative, good acting, no wagging finger. However, it is pro-American in the subtle, good, non rah-rah way, as it shows how the couple is living The Life while going through the spook motions. It is wonderful TV.

House of Cards: I do not like a lecture: not from the Right, the Left, or from the libertarians (my crowd). And I do not watch any program about politicians, CIA, FBI, NSA. I want to excise these cancers from my life.

UPDATE IV: Some seek an ideology in a story, I seek a good narrative. Not sure what it is about my explanation on Facebook that Friends have failed to get about excising all gov. from my life. CIA, FBI, NSA, D.C.: “Good” or bad, it’s all bad, because it should be abolished. I don’t watch it for “fun.” I write about it.

Zero Care: Affirming The Criminal Class; Spitting On Ordinary Americans

Crime, Government, Healthcare

And US pundits and pols dare call Putin’s Russia corrupt to the core? What follows is a critical mass of evidence, courtesy of National Review, detailing the affirmative-action program for the criminal class that is Obamacare. These are cases of known criminals, screened and accepted into the ranks of the lawful criminals who man the Zero-Care bureaucracy:

* Convicted Terrorist Worked as Obamacare Navigator in Illinois 2/26/14:

A terrorist from Jordan briefly worked as an Obamacare navigator in Illinois while authorities remained unaware of her conviction for involvement in a deadly grocery store bombing and two other attacks.

Rasmieh Yousef Odeh was convicted in Israel for her role in several bombings, including the 1969 attack on an upscale Shufersol grocery store, which killed two Hebrew University students who had stopped in to buy groceries for a hiking trip in the Jerusalem hills.

* Colorado Health-Exchange Director Indicted for Fraud, Theft 2/13/14:

The director of Colorado’s health exchange has been placed on administrative leave after the state discovered she had been indicted for stealing from a non-profit …

* 43 California ACA Navigators Have Criminal Convictions, Including for Forgery and Welfare Fraud 1/29/14:

One navigator committed forgery twice in twelve years and was also convicted of burglary in between.
One navigator was convicted for committing welfare fraud and had also been caught shoplifting on at least two occasions.
Another navigator had two more forgery convictions, as well as a domestic-violence charge.
At least seven navigators had multiple convictions but were still approved.
Even though applicants are required to self-report prior offenses, records show that 21 prospective certified enrollment counselors failed to do so — and were approved anyway, even though their background check revealed criminal convictions.

* Felonious Obamacare Navigators? 1/21/14:

Most states have nonexistent or only partial requirements for background checks for Obamacare navigators. But new legislation introduced in Arizona, Colorado, and Virginia would mandate background checks for all navigators, establishing strict guidelines for what offenses the state would consider disqualifying. … These navigators work with vulnerable populations and have access to confidential data, including Social Security numbers, financial information, and health records. Nevertheless, the federal government does not require Obamacare navigators to undergo background checks.

* Confirmed: One Connecticut Obamacare Navigator Has Felony Conviction 1/20/14:

Open records obtained from Connecticut show that one navigator for that state’s exchange was allowed to work despite a Class B Felony conviction (Connecticut’s Class B Felonies are punishable by 1 to 20 years in prison).
AccessHealthCT declined to disclose the navigator’s name or the charge associated with the conviction, citing privacy protections.

* How Many Obamacare Navigators Have Criminal Pasts? 1/16/14:

Certified New Mexico navigators had been charged with crimes including: eight domestic-violence charges, including aggravated battery and aggravated assault of a household member; four drug charges; two larceny charges; one petty-theft charge; one shoplifting charge; and two child-abuse charges. There were also several driving-related charges, including DWIs, DUIs, and speeding or traffic crimes. In at least two instances, navigators had traffic charges for lacking insurance.

* Obamacare’s Fishy Navigators 1/16/14::

One in seven of New Mexico’s certified Obamacare navigators had a match in the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database, according to public records obtained by National Review Online.

MORE.

The American ruling elite has immunized itself from the laws it inflicts on the masses, whom it rightly does not fear.

Other than the vocal identity groups, who are revered and catered to by North-Eastern elites—the mass of American voters are deemed pushovers.

And deservedly so, for how else can one view a soft people who, in the face of craven the injustices of Obamacare, do no more than lament the loss of faith in “their” beloved government?

The traitors at the top show their contempt for their subservient subjects by exposing these passive pushovers to the detritus of humanity.

Government Employees

BAB's A List, Etiquette, Government

Government Employees
By Myron Pauli

For some unfathomable reason, Americans surrender control over their lives, liberty, and property to local, state, and federal governments. After they do this, they often have a sort of buyer’s remorse – perhaps changing the person at the top will do it: Cuomo begat Pataki who begat Cuomo at the state level. Or Clinton begat Bush who begat Obama who begat Clinton at the federal level – as the French say, plus ca change c’est la meme chose (the more things change, the more they remain the same). If “elections” to change the captain of the ship do not bring about Utopia, then perhaps it is the lazy and stupid crew – the “government employees”.

The often heard answer is that the bureaucracy does not work because of the idiot bureaucrats. The fact is that the primary rule of a bureaucracy is “COVER YOU’RE A**” – intelligent vs. stupid or lazy vs. diligent takes a distant place to the prime directive.

LAZY employees! Be careful what you wish for! Do you really want a government of zealous workaholic Torquemadas1? What we need are IRS auditors harassing twice as many small businesses; TSA perverts fondling twice as many women; CIA agents waterboarding twice as many ‘terrorists’; NSA listening to twice as many phone calls; SWAT teams breaking twice as many doors down of suspected dope-smokers in the middle of the night; twice the number of weddings in Pakistan blown up by drones.

And keep in mind that bureaucrats dispense money – so what we need are: twice as many ethanol grants, twice as many Solyndras, twice as many foreign governments bribed, twice as many food stamps handed out, twice as many community organizers, twice as many ‘research grants’ for ‘lesbian studies in amphibians’, twice as many no-bid cost-plus contracts, twice as many grants from the National Endowment for the Arts … And then we have those LAZY regulators – let them get off their butt and write twice as many EPA and OSHA and Medicare and IRS rules – all of them contradicting other rules. After all, these extra regulations will cause jobs for thousands of lawyers and accountants and Bastiat can break a few windows from his grave2.

No, my friends – with most of what government does – pay these guys to take the whole year off except for 1 day of cake and bonuses for the “laziest” bureaucrat who did the least damage to the nation and/or to the world at large. “In spite of the temptation to screw things up, you did less beyond the call of duty”.

STUPID employees! Admittedly, National Institutes of Health might be able to use a Pasteur or Salk but does your local SWAT team need them? Aren’t we better off with Steven Jobs3 innovating at Apple than handing out housing subsidies? Would you want to employ Beethoven dispensing food stamps, Einstein operating drones, Michelangelo listening to your phone calls, and Pythagoras fondling airplane passengers? Can you imagine Sigmund Freud waterboarding! (Please get on the couch, Abdul, while I hook up the hose and ask you about your mother). Given the nature of government, America is far better off if the capable and intelligent are used productively in what remains of private enterprise. Taking useful and innovative people from where they can be constructive and letting them run free “regulating” the state, nation, and planet is a definite prescription for the sadomasochistic. As for stupid presidents – if I have to choose between “stupid” Gerald Ford and our only Ph.D. president, Woodrow Wilson4, give me a harmless mediocrity anytime and anyplace.

For one who believes that government that governs least governs best, I have NO inherent objection to lazy or stupid (under the assumption that the political system will not ever allow a government agency to be dismantled). But I will make one confession – it would be nicer if our bureaucrats were more polite!

—– —- REFERENCES —- —-
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom%C3%A1s_de_Torquemada
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_broken_window
3. http://barelyablog.com/steven-jobs-%E2%80%93-capitalist-hero/
4. http://barelyablog.com/woodrow-the-worst/

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Barely a Blog (BAB) contributor Myron Pauli grew up in Sunnyside Queens, went off to college in Cleveland and then spent time in a mental institution in Cambridge MA (MIT) with Benjamin Netanyahu (did not know him), and others until he was released with the “hostages” and Jimmy Carter on January 20, 1981, having defended his dissertation in nuclear physics. Most of the time since, he has worked on infrared sensors, mainly at Naval Research Laboratory in Washington DC. He was NOT named after Ron Paul but is distantly related to physicist Wolftgang Pauli; unfortunately, only the “good looks” were handed down and not the brains. He writes assorted song lyrics and essays reflecting his cynicism and classical liberalism. Click on the “BAB’s A List” category to access the Pauli archive.