Category Archives: Government

Stuff you may or may not know about your local, state, and federal government

Government

Security Clearances

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Today, The White House announced that it is considering rescinding the security clearances for some of President Obama’s cabinet members and staff. Of course the loonie leftists in Congress are saying that if they do this, this is the end of the world. “Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies! Rivers and seas boiling, Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes, the dead rising from the grave! Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together… ”

Let’s get a few facts about security clearances. In order to handle classified information, you need at least TWO things,

  • Possess a clearance that is at or above the highest level of classification of the material that you will be accessing.
  • You must have a “NEED TO KNOW” in order to have access to the classified information.

Just because someone has a top secret clearance DOES NOT give them FREE access to any piece of classified information.  If John Brennan, former director of the CIA and current MSNBC (corrected on 7/25/2018, I originally wrote CNN) talking head, waltzed into the CIA and asked to see ANY piece of classified information, the lowliest employee is supposed to challenge him with, “WHAT IS YOUR NEED TO KNOW?“.  Of course he wouldn’t have any and said employee should tell Brennan to pound sand.

For us mortals, we must show a NEED to possess a clearance AND we must work for an organization that has a FACILITIES CLEARANCE which is the holder of the clearance.  I doubt that CNN, MSNBC, or any news organization had the proper facilities clearances to hold anyone’s clearance.

High level officials were allowed to maintain their clearances to allow them to help out in the transition from one administration to the next. There has also been a weak argument that previous administration’s staff has “corporate knowledge” that might be tapped in a crisis situation.

I see no reason for any of President Obama’s staff to have clearances. I cannot see anyone from President Trump’s administration EVER seeking “advice” from the buffoons of the previous administration.

Okay, maybe they might want to know how much a pallet of HALF A BILLION DOLLAR$ in CASH weighs, next time someone wants to load up an unmarked transport aircraft with the PAY OFF to a TERRORIST regime.

Business, Culture, Finance, Government

For Which People?

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Today, the Democrats secretly unveiled their new election slogan, “For the People“. The Dims are supposedly going to focus on healthcare, infrastructure spending, and Republican corruption.

Yes, they should fix the healthcare debacle that they created. Remember Nancy and her famous justification for passing the bill, “We have to pass it to find out what’s in it!“? We found out that it benefits the few at the expense of the many. Great deal.  What the Dims want to do is double down on Obamacare as their fix.

What gets ignored in the debate about the current fiasco of healthcare is that it hurts the MIDDLE CLASS THE MOST. For those that work for a large employer, they may not have seen much of an effect, but long term the employer couldn’t give out raises because of these increases in healthcare costs.  Someone ends up paying for the increased cost and it’s the worker in the long run.  Why do you think that wages have stagnated?  More on this below.

Small business owners are hit hard if not the hardest. Some business owners have made the decision to limit the growth of the companies to stay below the 50 EMPLOYEE healthcare mandated ceiling. Above 50 employees the rules for an employer paying healthcare dramatically changes. More people could have been employed but it doesn’t make financial sense to take the step over 50 to many business owners.

What you end up creating is TWO CLASSES. Wealthy and poor. Those in the middle are burdened by the yoke of healthcare. How big of a burden is it? In real dollars I can tell you that for an individual healthcare is about $10,000.00 per YEAR. A family of 4 must spend about $25,000.00 per YEAR. And remember that’s for INSURANCE ONLY, NOT COVERAGE. They don’t tell you that you need to spend those dollar figures before your coverage starts. And in most cases, the coverage is only 80%. Another great deal.

A recent study shows that the percentage of businesses comprised of startups and small businesses is declining. Why is this? I suspect it has to do with economies of scale. Large businesses have a distinct advantage over the small company because they can negotiate for lower healthcare insurance costs as well as paying for staff to navigate the morass of regulations and taxation mandated by state and federal governments.

Why are healthcare costs HIGH and INCREASING?  With the passing of Obamacare we found out that inside of the legislation, those in the MIDDLE CLASS must PAY for those who are “UNINSURED”.  Legislation “For the uninsured people“.  Socialist wealth re-distribution.  Feels good to force working people to give their hard earned dollars to others.  Social justice from above.  Obamacare is a TAX that is buried inside of healthcare premiums.  If the Dims were honest (which is an unlikely scenario for any politician) they should have proposed HIGHER INCOME TAXES to pay for FREE healthcare “For the uninsured people“.  It would have only been a 5% to 10% increase in income tax.  Those forcibly obtained dollars would have easily provided insurance “For the uninsured people“.  Do you think a 10% income tax increase would have been popular?

Here’s that sad part.  Many in the working class have, on top of their increased healthcare costs, also LOST the equivalent of that 10% TAX.  If you didn’t get a raise or you received a smaller than usual raise since the beginning of Obamacare, you’ve fallen behind at least 10% in your yearly income.  If the business owner could have given you a 1.25% raise per year for the past 8 years of Obamacare’s existence, your pay rate would be more than 10% higher than it was before Obamacare.  Even if you get cost of living raises from now until you retire, remember you’re still losing that 10% of earnings for the rest of your working career.

Democracy (ahem SOCIALISM) at its best.

Feel better now?

Culture, Finance, Government, Politics

Is Profit Evil?

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Direct from the Democratic Socialists of America website:
“We are socialists because we reject an economic order based on private profit, alienated labor, gross inequalities of wealth and power, discrimination based on race, sex, sexual orientation, gender expression, disability status, age, religion, and national origin, and brutality and violence in defense of the status quo.”

Their FIRST principle is to REJECT the idea of “private profit“. From this obviously PROFIT MUST SOMEHOW BE EVIL.

One must ask, why does a business exist? The most basic reason is to produce something or provide a service and generate a PROFIT. Why would an entrepreneur take a PERSONAL RISK (financial, emotional, physical and mental health) to start a company? Again the answer is, TO MAKE MONEY.

One then must ask, how many innovations have come about where the creator never wanted to make a PROFIT?  Look around you.  Do you see anything that was produced where the company made NO PROFIT?  Do shareholders invest money into companies out of the goodness of their hearts and expect nothing in return or do they expect the company to generate a PROFIT and a RETURN ON INVESTMENT?  How many innovations have arisen from such wonderful socialist countries like Venezuela, Cuba, Bangledesh, Guyana, Viet Nam, Laos, Cambodia, or North Korea?

One might argue, what about NON-PROFIT corporations?

The PBS President Paula Kerger earned a paltry $802,978.00 in 2016. If you look at the average non-profit CEO salaries with respect to the organization’s operating budget they are compensated at about 10% of the operating budget. A non-profit with an operating budget of $5,000,000.00 pays their CEO about HALF A MILLION dollars annually. The worker bees, bless their sacrificial hearts, make considerably less.

Why do they pay the CEOs the heftiest of salaries and not a “working man’s wage“? The answer is to attract qualified talent to run the organization. For some silly reason, talented individuals want to be compensated for their time (personal PROFIT). Hmmm, strange concept.

Let’s look at just how EVIL selling for PROFIT has become and how much SADNESS and INJUSTICE it has generated in our world.  Here’s one example.

According to Fortune, in 2016 the iPhone 7 had a production cost of about $225. The phone sold for $649 which gives Apple Inc. a PROFIT OF $424 PER PHONE sold. Wowzer, an EVIL GROSS PROFIT of over 188%, that’s a lot of injustice in this world. If you look at the one year cumulative sales of iPhones in which the 7 was released, Apple Inc. shipped nearly a QUARTER BILLION iPhones. Putting that into total numbers, A QUARTER BILLION PEOPLE HAPPILY GAVE Apple Inc. $106 BILLION DOLLARS in EVIL PROFIT in ONE YEAR! That’s a buttload of dumbocratic socialist injustice.

Why would so many people give so much money to a profit generating company and make themselves so SAD?

There’s a thing called a VALUE PROPOSITION. No one forced the consumer at gunpoint to give Apple Inc. the money. The consumer HAPPILY made the trade because they believed that the VALUE of a new iPhone 7 was worth more than possessing the money that they worked for. Apple Inc. on the other hand HAPPILY sold the iPhone because at the completion of the transaction they VALUED the $424 in PROFIT more than they VALUED the produced phone.

Wait, the consumer is HAPPY to pay for the phone at the retail price and Apple Inc. is HAPPY to sell them the phone and make a profit. Who is NOT HAPPY with this transaction?

Oh the social injustice when EVERYONE is HAPPY.

The ONLY SAD thing in all of this is the HUGE number of young people who possess a DUMBOCRATIC socialist view that PROFIT is EVIL.