The value of the vote

Caution: this is a long post; that’s why it has a “jump break” on the front page of the blog.

It’s ironic that Bernie Sanders brought this up while I’ve been re-reading Heinlein’s Starship Troopers:

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders said he thinks every U.S. citizen, even the convicted Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, should be allowed to vote in American elections.  Sanders offered his stance at a CNN town hall Monday when asked whether he thought felons should be allowed to vote while they’re incarcerated, not just after their release.

He was pressed on whether it was appropriate to enfranchise sex offenders or someone convicted of a heinous crime like Tsarnaev, who with his brother carried out the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing that left three dead and injured hundreds more.

“Yes, even for terrible people, because once you start chipping away and you say, ‘Well, that guy committed a terrible crime, not going to let him vote. Well, that person did that. Not going to let that person vote,’ you’re running down a slippery slope,” Sanders said in response to a question about restoring felons’ voting rights.

It appears Sanders is saying everyone should have the privilege of voting, regardless what they’ve done in their lives.  That’s not merely wrong, it’s disastrously dangerous.  Unlike the (poorly done) movie of Starship Troopers, the book discusses in great detail the importance of the franchise.  Indeed, the book is highly controversial for presenting a futuristic society in which the only full citizens with voting privileges are military veterans.  Pardon the excerpt from one of the book’s classroom discussions:

Save up all your tears

Shocked at Trump’s intention of giving Sanctuary cities exactly what they say they want — more illegal immigrants — Cher cries “what about Americans?”

I particularly liked the “(Many are VETS)” part, given current trends:

Democrats in Albany may be having second thoughts about blocking a bill that would help children of injured or fallen veterans go to college…

The committee instead approved $27 million in tuition assistance to so-called “dreamers” – students brought to the country by their parents illegally when they were children.

“Taxpayer money for free college for illegal immigrants… yet struck down a bill that provides free college tuition to gold star families. Absolutely wrong and insulting,” Assemblyman Michael Lipetri of Long Island’s 9th District added.

That a leftist like Cher is suddenly tweeting like a “deplorable” shows how effective Trump is at twisting them like a pretzel around their own politics.  It’s my fervent hope that undecided and independent Americans are looking at the Democrats’ reactions to his proposal to send illegals to “sanctuary” cities and asking “so wait… then why is it OK to inflict that on everyone else?”

We don’t need to just reelect Trump in 2020.  We need to give him a Congress fully prepared to support him.

Attempting to be an art critic

I’ve been seeing this image pop up here and there across the Internet.  It’s by the same painter who did one of Obama a few years back in response to the passage of Obamacare.  The two form something of a bookend set.

I think the original Obama painting was spot on, depicting as it did an aloof and arrogant president trampling the Constitution while all his predecessors (except a few to Obama’s right, or the “left” side of the crowd) looked on with expressions of “what the hell, man?”  The message of the original painting was clear.

As for the one above, I can appreciate that it’s not Trump who is center stage.  We don’t need blind hero worship or the man-on-the-white-horse syndrome here.  Trump’s depicted standing on a snake, which may be more Biblical allegory than I’m willing to extend to him.  That said, D.C. Mordor is definitely snake-infested in our day, and much of the hissing against Trump comes from that serpentine choir.  But the center of the action is a young family watering a plant (perhaps the Tree of Liberty?) in what is very parched soil.  The message could well be interpreted as Trump trying to buy time for the next generation to refresh our nation.  Changing who’s in office won’t matter until the culture itself has been changed.  Politics, it is said, flows downstream from culture.

I’m sure in this era of professional grievance-mongering, others will count faces and point out there are only a few non-white characters in the crowd.  But look who they are: Sheriff David Clarke, an outspoken patriot; an unnamed World War II veteran in a wheelchair who clearly gave to his country; an unnamed black lady and a minority man holding folded U.S. flags, signifying loss of loved ones in service to the nation.

The fault lines in this country today are not so much Republican-Democrat than they are traditionalist/progressive.  As the many “RINO” Republicans demonstrate, the parties don’t cleanly align with the other dichotomy (Sheriff Clarke, by the way, is a registered Democrat).  There are simply those who believe the “bourgeoisie” values that made this nation successful are worth preserving (perhaps “restoring” would be more accurate by this point), and the inaptly named “progressives” who would continue to tear down those values in a vague utopian quest that has ended in tragedy time and again throughout human history.

The takeaways?

• Don’t expect Trump to solve every problem.
• Those who love this land and the values that made it must be active in restoring them.
• Teach your children well.  One generation — the Boomers — left a huge wake of cultural destruction.  This shows how a single generation can change a nation.  Make sure those who are our heirs are prepared to change it again by valuing and defending their inheritance.

One final thought about watering the “tree of liberty” — the artist is optimistic in his portrayal.  Thomas Jefferson warned that nourishing that fragile plant sometimes takes more than water (though his quote is often used without context).  Hope/pray for the best; prepare for the worst.

And this is the thanks they get

At the height of the war in Iraq, the military offered large bonuses for experienced troops who chose to stay in despite the grueling deployment tempo, the risk to life and limb, and the effects on their families.

But Uncle Sam always reserves the right to change the terms of the deal whenever he wants:

Nearly 10,000 California National Guard soldiers have been ordered to repay huge enlistment bonuses a decade after signing up to serve in Iraq and Afghanistan, a newspaper reported Saturday…

A federal investigation in 2010 found thousands of bonuses and student loan payments were improperly doled out to California Guard soldiers. About 9,700 current and retired soldiers received notices to repay some or all of their bonuses with more than $22 million recovered so far.

Soldiers said they feel betrayed at having to repay the money.  ((Editor’s note: THEY WERE!))

“These bonuses were used to keep people in,” said Christopher Van Meter, a 42-year-old former Army captain and Iraq veteran who was awarded a Purple Heart. “People like me just got screwed.”

The government breaks its promises to We the People on a regular basis.  But this is an unusually egregious case.  To entice a veteran to stay in uniform during increasingly unpopular (and poorly managed) wars, have some of them wounded, crippled or killed, then wait a decade and say “now you have to pay it all back” is COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE.

Why isn’t the government of California on the hook for “overpaying” its National Guard?  Why should these soldiers suffer because someone made a promise that was not theirs to make?  Which bureaucrats will lose their jobs over fraudulently recruiting?  (I know… I’m not holding my breath.)  Why is it there’s always money and favors to give to illegal immigrants or foreign terror regimes, but never any to take care of Americans?

There have been too many broken promises, too much corruption, too many of our politicians on the take, and nothing for the average, law-abiding citizen of this nation.  Our self-appointed elites are so stupid that now they’re bashing thousands of combat veterans who may be wondering which way to point the rifle next time.  That’s just one of dozens of reasons why I’m convinced the United States is a dead country walking, and will soon collapse with a heartrending crash.  Why would anyone defend it, when this is the thanks those defenders get for putting their lives on the line?

For what little good it may do, there is an online petition to the White House asking to forgive these ‘debts’ that should never have been levied.  You can add your name here.

Abolish the VA… for starters

It’s become clear the Veterans Administration is incapable of meeting the mandate of “physician, heal thyself.”  It is time to dismantle the entire bureaucracy.  Instead of attempting to run hospitals, clinics and other services (something it is demonstrably incompetent and negligent in doing), it would be better for the Department of Defense to have a small administrative division whose sole purpose is to manage retiree healthcare payments that allow them to get care on the civilian market, where the quality is exponentially higher.

Indeed, the VA is Exhibit A when discussing the problems of government-run healthcare.  There is no accountability.  None.

Rima Nelson disappeared from public view after the St. Louis Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital she managed potentially exposed 1,800 patients to HIV, was closed twice for serious medical safety issues and ranked dead last in patient satisfaction.

But Nelson wasn’t fired. Her VA superiors hid her literally on the other side of the Earth in 2013 at the department’s only foreign facility, a seldom-used clinic inside the palatial U.S. Embassy in the Philippines capital city of Manila.

She resides in a government-provided condo and gets the same $160,000 salary she made in St. Louis, which allows her to live like royalty in a country where the average person makes only $2,500 a year.

This musical chairs game for incompetent or misbehaving executives is endemic within government service–and I’ve experienced it firsthand.  Civil Service rules make it so difficult to discipline or fire a bad employee that people simply swap problems, never putting in the enormous effort it takes to generate a system response that actually solved the issue (by terminating its employment).  In one of my last gigs for Uncle Sam, I had a GS-15 supervisor who routinely flouted all the rules and was abusive toward subordinates.  I attempted to upchannel the team’s concerns, but was largely ignored until said supervisor committed such an egregious foul that they finally had to take seriously what was being said.  After a command-directed investigation (no fun for anyone involved), this individual was removed from their leadership role… and transferred to a non-supervisory position with considerably less responsibility.  The kicker?  Under a crazy rule called “save pay,” he continued to draw a GS-15 salary, despite moving to a GS-12 billet.  So after all the extra headaches for those who were willing to jump through the Rube Goldberg machine to generate some accountability, the net result was this bad apple continued to draw the same amount of pay for doing even less work.

Nice incentive system you have there, Uncle Sam.  Don’t get me wrong: there are dedicated people in the employ of the Federal Government — I’ve met a number of them.  But I’m convinced they are far outnumbered by people who could never hope to command similar salaries in the private sector, due to a lack of talent, work ethic, integrity, or all of the above.  The system design subsidizes–even rewards–subpar performance.  And as the cases linked above show, it far too often protects malfeasance and criminal neglect, frequently going so far as to hide the offenders in out-of-the-way places, and retaliating against employees who point out systematic problems.

So consider carefully, America, just how much you want to be dependent upon these government bureaucrats and their mutual protection racket.  As the saying goes, anyone who has seen public housing should know that public healthcare isn’t a good idea.  And anyone who’s had dealings with the VA should know that government-run means third rate at best, compared to private sector options.  As much as I am absolutely opposed to Bernie Sanders’ agenda on all its particulars, he has said at least one wise thing I’m aware of: “If you can’t afford to take care of your veterans, don’t go to war.”  Our nation goes to war far too frivolously, and all too often tries to limit the bill to the actual fighting, rather than count the true cost of rebuilding the broken participants afterwards.

A final point: Americans have been conditioned to genuflect toward the military (a problem in itself).  “Thank you for your service” comes easily to peoples’ lips these days.

You want to thank veterans for their service?  Demand the government get out of the way and let them get the care they need from the best possible source — a provider they (not the government) choose in the private sector.  Even better — use the freedom veterans thought they were protecting for you to demand better of your alleged “public servants” all across government — not just the VA.  Hold officials accountable, including sending those who can’t or won’t provide value to the unemployment line where far too many veterans already languish.

Otherwise the American Idol act is just cheap feel-good talk.

A question

A little over 14 years ago, Islamic fanatics flew aircraft into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

We have been at war ever since, and while the cast of characters have changed over time, our opponents have tended to have one thing in common:

They, too, are Islamic fanatics.

So when I watch the video below, I’m left scratching my head.  What has the last decade and a half of violence been about, if we just plan to throw out the welcome mat and bring this problem to our shores?  What happened to “fighting them over there so we don’t have to fight them here?”  What, exactly, were our veterans ‘defending?’

And I thought things were bad this time last year…

Are you paying attention, people?  Are you prepared for what our “leaders” have in store for us?  Make no mistake: this isn’t just a problem “over there.”

Crime and (lack of) punishment, 2014

…because the weight of the State is only for throwing against the little people … preferably on a whim that supports pretensions of tyrannical power.

1)  California Democrats block expulsion of a legislator convicted of eight felonies — including not residing in the district he allegedly ‘represents’ (meanwhile, another is facing 24 felony counts)

2)  Department of Veterans’ Affairs destroyed medical records to ‘clear’ backlog

3) The Environmental Racket Protection Agency’s top-paid employee boosted his salary and perks by about $1 million… by pretending to also be a CIA operative.

4) The FCC and IRS continue to be ‘weaponized’ for partisan advantage… and Congress still hasn’t received a full accounting of shenanigans from the 2012 election cycle

This kind of thing is becoming frequent enough that people are starting to take note.  Which is probably why the next international crisis is being carefully prepared in the Ukraine, with a backup in the South China Sea, so that the serfs can be distracted if they get too focused on cleaning house.

DON’T FORGET WHO THE REAL ENEMY IS… No Incumbents, Please!