Recent Swamp-draining efforts inside the Beltway have hit the US Department of Veterans' Affairs yet again. Last Summer, over a hundred VA employees were arrested for stealing Opioids and selling them on the Black Market. The level of thefts was so high that authorities discovered it when veterans legitimately prescribed the drugs couldn't get prescriptions filled because the supplies had run out.
In 2007, the VA appointed Glenn Pearson---a Massachusetts police sergeant---as a Fiduciary for disabled veterans. Pearson also ran a tax preparation firm and acted in this capacity for eight veterans. In some cases, Fiduciaries are appointed for persons unable to manage their finances.
The IRS and FBI have jointly charged Pearson with robbing these veterans of nearly $250,000. Under the VA program, Pearson set up trusts for these clients, but took VA funds for himself illegally by fraudulently assigning them to other expenses. The IRS discovered the crime during an audit of Pearson's company also revealed that he was taking bribes to prepare false tax returns for customers.
Might we suggest that the VA has a definite problem in screening the people whom they put in positions of authority? This is a Swamp which really needs drained. And another Swamp Rat got taken in the VA this week as well.
Russell Ware, a VA official, was taken into custody after being caught diverting veterans' benefits into his own bank account. Investigations revealed that Ware also had accomplices to whom he sent veterans' benefits (although they weren't veterans at all) who sent Ware a kickback for the thefts.
Last and arguably least: Secret Service Special Agent Shaun Bridges was jailed for money laundering in connection with Operation Silk Road, an Obama-Era sting operation targeting Black Market activities online. This was the sting that caught California gangster "Dread Pirate" Roberts. As part of the sting, the Secret Service set up a Bitcoin account as a front. Bridges was in charge of that account, but siphoned off over $10 million for himself and tried to throw the blame on Roberts. It didn't work, though, and Bridges will be joining Roberts in the Federal Pen---for the next 8 years, anyway.
Over the last several years, Americans have lost confidence in their government; and that is because of government employees and contractors like the ones above. One of the most important contributions of the Trump Administration is making government work again---and work for the people instead of for the Deep State.
Our dysfunctional postmodern culture has expressed hatred of traditional masculinity and male heterosexuality in particular since the 1990s. In an era when Bill Clinton and Al Gore were held up as male role models and frauds like the Tailhook Scandal were widely publicized, things were bound to get worse.
Thus, Gentleman's Quarterly---once a widely-read and followed men's magazine---hit its nadir by naming disgraced ex-NFL thug Colin Kaepernick as its 'Citizen of the Year' (formerly known as The Man of the Year Award). GQ is also the same media outlet which hosts the neurotic Keith Olbermann on television. We've spoken before about GQ's parent-company and its ties to the DNC.
GQ also named foul-mouthed 'comedian' Steven Colbert as its Bad Hombre of the Year, whatever that means. Like Kaepernick, Colbert is another multimillionaire who makes a living spouting profanity against Trump and blasphemy against Christians. Most of his monologues sound about like the rantings of some drunken barfly after taking about a quart of rum, but Liberals pretend to themselves that he makes sense.
Kaepernick, as we remember, pushed the NFL into its further descent as a theater of political protest by refusing to honor the National Anthem. What's conveniently forgotten by the Media Elites is that Kaepernick turned to these demonstrations after his career had taken a turn for the worse. In his last two seasons, his record as a starting quarterback was a dismal three wins and sixteen losses. He's currently suing the NFL saying that no team will hire him because of his political beliefs: not because he alienates fans, can't win games, and doesn't work well with his teammates.
Kaepernick, Olbermann, and Colbert: wouldn't any father be proud of having three sons like these?
As for myself, I'd chose a real man for a son like another former NFL quarterback, Warren Moon. Moon has been critical of Kaepernick; especially regarding the pending lawsuit. But let's look at Warren Moon's history. Moon was born in a poor part of Los Angeles as the only son in a family of seven. His father died, leaving 7 year-old Warren as the 'man of the family.' Because he had to help work, he only played one sport in school: football; and he became proficient through practice and hard work. He played for a small local college on an athletic scholarship and his performance won him another scholarship with the NCAA powerhouse, the Washington Huskies.
Moon wasn't drafted into the NFL, but he wouldn't quit. He went to Canada and played six seasons in the Canadian Football League. He did so well that the NFL and CFL engaged in a bidding war. At the age of 28---a year younger than Kaepernick is now---Moon signed with the NFL's now-defunct Houston Oilers and starred there for 10 seasons.
At 38, Moon was released by the Oilers as too old, but he signed with the Minnesota Vikings where he started for three more seasons---in two of which he was selected as an NFL All-Pro. At the age of 41, he was signed by the Seattle Seahawks where he played two seasons and was the NFL passing leader one year. In total, Moon played 16 years in the NFL; 6 years in the CFL; and now lives in Seattle and works as a sportscaster. In 2006, he was inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame.
Like all of us, Moon's personal life wasn't always perfect; but he married his high-school sweetheart and raised a family and well as supporting his mother. But most of all; Moon deserves a Man of the Year Award because his entire life is that of a real man who achieved the pinnacle of success because he wouldn't quit. The story related above shows several points where most men would have stopped. Moon set his eyes on his goals both in football and his marriage and keeps on going.
Contrary to GQ, that is what real men do. Flapping their arms and playing the Victim Card is not.
The 2018 Electoral Cycle is just getting underway and we have our first Media-fabricated scandal over Alabama US Senatorial candidate, Roy Moore. Essentially a woman who worked for the Clinton Campaign is accusing Moore of acting like a heterosexual male back when the 'accuser' was a young nubile.
Are these allegations true? Answer: who cares?
First of all, consider that the US Mainstream Media---a collection of neurotics, drug-addicts, perverts, and cultists---are the ones who are pushing the story. These is the same group who attacked Moore when he was a judge for refusing to take down a monument displaying the Ten Commandments. They are the same group who think nothing at all is wrong with interjecting homosexual scenes in children's Disney cartoons or depicting lurid sex and violence on prime-time television. It's no accident that cities with the highest per capita number of homosexuals and drug-addicts are also major media centers.
This whole obsession with older men and younger women as being somehow morally wrong is a completely recent innovation: inspired by Radical Feminists and other anti-heterosexual groups. Though hardly a senior citizen, I well recall married women and mothers in my high-school graduating class. Just looking back at the Night Wind Family Tree, male ancestors were taking brides of 15-19 for six generations going back to the year of immigration.
But some will say---have we ever leaders in the US who've had relationships with teenagers or much younger women? Well, yes there were. Let's start with the only man who won two non-consecutive terms as President:
Grover Cleveland was engaged to his ward, Frances Folsom, when she was 14. She wanted to finish school before marriage, and the two were wed when she was 19 and the President was 49. Theirs is still the only marriage ceremony that has taken place in the White House.
The President who escaped an assassination attempt and held the country together in the wake of the Civil War; sacrificing his own political career for the good of the country:
President Andrew Johnson married 17 year-old Eliza McCardle in 1827. She was an educated woman, incidentally, and Johnson was an autodidact. So much for a man 'taking advantage'of a younger female.
Former Governor of California, general, and the first Republican candidate for the Presidency:
John C. Fremont was engaged to Jessie Benton---daughter of a US Senator---when she was 15. They married shortly after her 16th birthday.
Civil War Cavalry hero, Commander-in-Chief of the US Army; founder of Yellowstone National Park and former president of the NRA:
Phil Sheridan married at 44 to Irene Rucker, 18, daughter of another general.
America's greatest inventor, a leading businessman, and the man who made electricity and mass communication possible:
Thomas Alva Edison married Mary Stilwell when she was 16. The couple had three children. Mary later died of an illness, and Edison's second wife was 20 years his junior.
On the subject of great inventors and great American patriots:
Benjamin Franklin proposed to Deborah Read when she was 15. She lived as Franklin's common-law wife from her mid-teens despite being later forced into an arranged marriage with another man. She continued to live with Franklin as a wife until her death. They had three children.
The point of this being that a man's tastes in women is absolutely no reflection on either his abilities or his character. As President Cleveland used to say of critics during one election: "If my choice of a wife costs me an election, so be it. I wouldn't want to be the leader of any people who choose their leaders on that kind of basis."
Our modern political system could stand a few more like Cleveland.
The day prior to the holiday, the US Department of Justice announced that a Seattle-area banking contractor, Northwest Trustee Service was indicted for 28 violations of the Servicemen's Civil Relief Act. This is the second such indictment since Trump took office.
The SCRA was signed into law by the last President Bush, but rarely enforced under Obama. The law provides debt protection to active-duty servicemen by suspending or changing various processes related to collections. The last Federal suit won a judgment on behalf of 61 veterans whose vehicles were illegally seized under SCRA. Friday's indictment against Northwest involves illegally foreclosed homes. Under the law, if a serviceman takes out a mortgage and is subsequent called to active duty, the Financial Cartels are prohibited from foreclosure until 12 months after the end of deployment.
"Our investigation revealed that Northwest Trustee Services repeatedly violated a law which is meant to insure that our troops do not have to fight a two-front war---one on behalf of all of us, and the other against illegal foreclosures." stated an FBI Financial Investigator.
We learned last year from Wiki Leaks that both Obama and Hilary Clinton were little more than puppets of financial crooks like Goldman-Sachs and George Soros. Small wonder that they did very little to prevent these kinds of things from happening.
Northwest Trustee Services itself has a very shady reputation. One of the company's founders, attorney David Fennel was suspended for one year by the Washington State Bar for unethical practices. The company has been sued over a hundred times and---judging by what former employees have said on the Internet---maintains a work environment with low pay and high turnover. Nonetheless, numerous banks subcontract to this gang even though their dubiousness is hardly a great secret.
If the indictment is successful, Northwest will be forced to compensate the veterans whose homes were stolen and pay federal fines of nearly a quarter-million dollars per offense. Hopefully, that will bankrupt this gang of scoundrels and prevent them from doing our country any further harm.
Some controversy arose over a recent article here criticizing the position of Alt-RINO talk-show host Michael Savage on welfare reform. Some hardliners like Savage believe that there should be no so-called 'social safety net'. One would assume that the Great Depression of the 1930s would have settled this issue; but Deep State mismanagement and abuse have caused a reaction that is far out of proportion to the problem.
So one Libertarian pointed out that statistics are showing that the most purchased items in the Food Stamp program are groceries that most of us consider 'junk food' and that illustrates that the money is being wasted. But is that so?
We've made the argument here that the way to reform welfare programs is to cut back on bureaucratic overhead and pursue deflationary economics. Bureaucracy can be reduced simply by eliminating redundant and overlapping federal and state agencies. The second would cure problems such as those raised by our Libertarian critics. For example, let's establish a few facts relative to the Food Stamp program.
First and foremost, it must be understood that indigent people do not have unlimited funds for purchasing foodstuffs. In states on the West Coast, it amounts to slightly less than $200 per person per month. Now let's do some comparison shopping in the same area, from a major supermarket chain:
1 gal (4 liters) generic soft drink-------$1.78
1 gal of whole milk-----------------------$5.99
1 large bag of generic potato chips-----$1.99
1 loaf of quality whole-wheat bread----$4.39
1 lb. of Oscar Meyer bologna-----------$1.99
1 lb. of ground beef----------------------$4.99
Maybe if the Agribusiness Cartels weren't price-gouging consumers so much on staples, low-income Americans might make healthier choices, shouldn't we suppose? We should suppose that if milk were cheaper than cola, people would drink more of it: this is just simple economics.
It's also a matter of simple economics that farmers aren't getting paid anywhere near what supermarkets are charging for their products. And since the government reimburses these companies for Food Stamp purchases, the Robber-Barons simply charge the maximum that the market will bear. If this costs sales, no problem. They donate the surpluses to food banks and write the losses off their taxes as charitable donations.
This is the real scam going on within the welfare system; and the reason why Liberals---who don't mind meddling with the economy everywhere else---talk about tax increases for more spending; but never about price-controls. They prove that they're hypocrites and toadies of Wall Street; because if they were honest Liberals, price-controls would actually be effective at helping the poor.
Price-controls however, have economic disadvantages of their own. The Nixon Administration tried them in the 1970s, and the result was economic stagnation. What needs to happen to bring down prices is Deflationary Economics. By increasing the buying power of the dollar to reasonable levels again, food and other necessities would become affordable again.
We have had economic inflation for so long in the US that most Americans believe that it is inevitable. Not so. We had deflation for most of the mid-20th Century and that contributed to our prosperity.
To give an example of how badly the Deep State has corrupted the Dollar, consider that when President Reagan left office, the Dollar had double the buying power of the day that President Obama did. Is it any wonder that record numbers of Americans have been on public assistance since the 1990s?
We don't need to cut public assistance; we need to cut out the parasites and the price-gougers from the system. And with a solid dollar, that would be possible.
There's nothing like exceeding expectations and President Trump has done it again. On the eve of the APEC Summit, we were expecting that some good trade news and some cooperation in fighting the Opioid Epidemic would be the highlights of Trump's visit to China. Instead, the Chinese Media is announcing the biggest trade deal in Sino-US history: worth over a quarter trillion dollars and mutually benefiting both countries.
An unbelievable 34 trade treaties were signed. Here are the top five, as reported by The Global Times:
1. US microchip manufacturer Qualcomm agreed to a $12 billion contract to provide advanced chips to three Chinese smart-phone manufacturers. Besides being an economic boost for our Tech Sector; China has long sought to ease American export restrictions on sophisticated microchip technologies. At the last CED meeting, China stressed these restrictions as a major obstacle to fair trade. Trump is reversing apparently this policy---first put in by the Clintons---which was really designed to protect US cellphone manufacturers (who were outsourcing anyway) from competition with Chinese firms.
2. China agreed to lift restrictions on US soybean exports---representing a $5 billion gain to American agriculture.
3. America's largest aircraft manufacturer, Boeing, has agreed to sell 300 passenger jets to China's airline system. This is a $37 billion gain for the US Aerospace Industry. Obama had foolishly held up sales of these jets to China over his peacocking 'Pivot to Asia'.
4. The China Energy Investment Corporation pulled the biggest surprise by agreeing to invest a whopping $84 billion in upgrading American shale gas and chemical refineries in West Virginia. This is the very kind of trade deal we've needed from China. The benefit to US Coal producers is going to be huge and likely will turn the economy completely around in North Appalachian regions.
5. China also agreed to invest $43 billion in a joint Sino-US effort to produce gasoline from the Arctic and Alaskan regions. This is another brilliant move by the two presidents. Currently, Russia is the dominant power in oil and gas production in the Arctic. The US fell behind under the last three administrations, while China has only recently begun Arctic exploration. Working together, the two countries can represent a major force in the Petroleum Industry again. It should be noted that both the US and China have independent agreements with Canada for exploring Canadian resources. An economic cooperation between the three countries will put us in a position to challenge Russian and Arabian oil production.
The hyenas in the US Media were naturally downplaying these achievements: ridiculously claiming that Trump was selling out to the Chinese and other such things. These assertions were held up to well-deserved laughter in the Chinese press. Who would have thought that a year after the Election that America would be exporting goods to China and that Chinese companies wanted to outsource to the US?
There were other achievements at the Summit as well. True to his promise, President Trump also secured Xi's cooperation in establishing an anti-Opioid Task Force.
Is anyone still sorry that Hilary lost last year?
A year ago, Americans awoke to the news that the Era of the Deep State was over. The Corporate Media---whose ratings and credibility have imploded since that day---have been trying to distract the public by claiming electoral rejection of Trump in the 2017 Elections. The fact that liberals won seats in overwhelmingly Democrat localities, though, is hardly a repudiation of Trump's policies.
During the last year, things have changed radically in the US; and mostly for the better. The economy is showing growth---still slow by global standards, but dramatically higher than the last several decades. Thousands of Americans have left welfare for work again. As Vice-President Pence noted yesterday, much of this growth is happening in the Energy Sector. This is due largely to President Trump's repeal of several federal-level obstructions holding back development.
Our Energy Sector and our infrastructure generally still have a long way to go. However, the Administration has been cracking down aggressively on corporate polluters. Starkist and Tyson Foods were among the worst offenders and they've been compelled to clean up damaged waterways. Trump has begun some new water treatment projects and ordered upgrades in our power-grids. Also the recent hurricanes and floods have the Administration moving on upgrading our failing levees.
In education, Trump has been moving to close the science gap and begin new projects for space exploration. Vice-President Pence has been active in this area. Our schools, though, are a disaster. Hopefully we'll see further progress in 2018 on this front.
Pence also pointed out significant gains in fighting the Opioid Epidemic and wiping out gangs. The Administration has done outstanding work in this field. The vicious MS-13 gang has been decimated with well over a thousand of its members rounded up. Opioid supply links have been smashed---especially ones surfeiting off corruption in the US medical system. The President stated his intention to propose a Sino-US Task Force to fight opium traffic with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
In foreign trade, we've seen significant improvements. One of the issues that the Corporate Media has wholly ignored has been the Administration's crackdown on price-gouging and unfair shipping practices by foreign firms. The EU has been the biggest violator and five European shipping companies have been sanctioned and fined this year alone. Their egregious cheating has been undercutting American shipping companies for years. 2017 may be the first year in decades that American shipping sees growth.
The Trump Administration has also caused a sharp increase in American agriculture. Especially opening exports of rice and beef to China. But other countries have been opened for export too. The long-term effect of some of this will be an expansion of US agriculture; which should result in lower food prices. By extension, lower prices should also continue to reduce the national welfare burden.
And Beltway swamp-draining shouldn't be overlooked. A fairly significant number of corrupt bureaucrats are winding up in jail. Several corrupt policies---like funneling government settlements to Soros-funded activist groups have been terminated. States receiving federal funds are being audited for the first time. Not only that, but some of the prosecutions of the Obama years are being re-opened and re-examined. Three military servicemen, purged in the sexual-harassment witch-hunts have had their convictions overturned.
And contrary to what the Corporate Media and the NFL are saying, the Trump Administration has been cracking down on police brutality and corruption, especially in the Prison-Industrial Complex. Just last week, some guards in the Louisiana Prison System were indicted for brutality and the the head of a prison transport company jailed for raping female inmates.
The Media has also become silent on Obama-Era scandals---mostly because Trump has been cleaning them up. Remember the Volkswagen Clean Air Scandal; or the Fat Leonard Scandal; or the Epipen Scandal; or the Real-Estate Bid-Rigging Scandal? All of these have been settled with jail time for liable parties. So recently was the scandal in which the IRS singled out Conservative Groups. And the Government is currently working on LIBOR, the Haiti-Relief Scandal, and Operation Fast-and-Furious. Some have already gone to jail in the last two cases and warrants are outstanding relative to LIBOR.
And that list doesn't include the numerous Medicare fraud, corrupt contracting deals, securities frauds, etc. that politically-connected crooks got away during the years of the Deep State.
Mr. President: we're all looking forward to another year.
