Sheer Embarrassment from Washington

 

What or who can be described as sheer embarrassment from Washington can be answered in so many ways as the national capital is just chock full of embarrassments. Many people have referred to President Trump as the most embarrassing President in history. We might also nominate President Ulysses S. Grant as probably a good candidate to challenge for that title, but for this article, we will grant that there is plenty of potential that might be parlayed into a winning Presidency for the title. We will have to wait and see. But we were not referring to President Trump.

 

Then there is the media and the, as President Trump refers to it, “Fake news” giving them a run at the title. We know much of the news comes from New York or Los Angeles. Where that may prove true, and we would add Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston and other major cities, but the news, which appears to be most made-up, originates from Washington D.C. We have had our little disagreements with the media for longer than most and much of it with CNN and their reporting on the Middle East and Israel specifically. Even so, we are afraid that it is not the news media we are referring to in this article.

 

Then there are the reactions to the Presidency of Donald J. Trump from the entertainment direction and some of the most outlandish and outspoken actors and actresses. We have seen such things as a decapitated President, demands to assassinate the President and for assaults on the White House. The entertainment industry has had musicians actually ruin otherwise great performances by injecting political denouncements into their acts. These entertainers, singer, musicians, comedians and others have gone to such extremes that they have also been an embarrassment, but not what we are targeting.

 

That leaves Congress and they are the group which has gotten our attentions this time. It is particularly the Republicans who are going to receive our attentions. We understand the Democrat Party Congressional representation voting as a single point against the majority of things President Trump has lobbied Congress to pass. President Trump is, to them, the enemy who desires destroying everything they believe and have accomplished over the last eight years under President Barack Obama. Of course, the Democrats will vote against much, if not all, of the Trump agenda and their ability to hold the line unanimously is a credit to their part unity and vote discipline. If the Republicans were as supportive of their President as the Democrats are at opposing the President, then President Trump would be getting things completed and checking them off his to do list, as they would be done. The Republicans do not have that kind of discipline and the reason is basic, their leadership, at best, is conflicted over their support for the President. They are not attempting to hold their people to vote for the Trump agenda, as they do not respect him as their party leader. They view President Trump as an outsider and a one-off who was more lucky than having any political acumen. They do not believe he has earned their respect or the right to lead their party and thus do not feel obligated to work for him as they might one of their own. Their actions are going to cost them when elections come, especially if their electorate lives anywhere between the Appalachian Mountains and the Sierra Nevada Mountains, otherwise called Middle America. These were the people who sent Trump to the White House and they are likely not going to receive their representatives second-guessing their wisdom. This has made the Congress into a do-nothing Congress when the people voted for change and they are not receiving what they demanded.

 

The two items which the electorate was most eager to see enacted were the repeal of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) and tax reform including across the board tax reductions and simplification of the tax code even if that meant they would lose some presumed precious deductions. The people recognized that Obamacare was nothing more than the means by which the Democrats were attempting to force the enactment of a single-payer healthcare system run by the government and wanted no part of such a system. The people wanted their old system of healthcare returned to them while it was still viable rather than delays until the healthcare insurance industry had failed beyond repair, something which is no more than six months away by many estimates. Unfortunately, there are some core Republican elite members who agree with the left that the best healthcare is government run healthcare and that the people need to be given what these Republican lifetime Congress members believe is best for them, not what the people themselves desire. These lifers think they are more intelligent and wiser than the people they represent. Many of these people, they believe, are incapable of reasoning intelligently will hopefully demonstrate their ability for independent thought and replace these elite politicians who believe themselves to be superior to those they represent. Apparently there are those amongst the most well-known Republicans in Congress who have decided that being a representative of the people does not require representing the people but thinking for the people.

 

The other issue, tax reform and reduction, has not been given a good run as the Congress decided to run off and take their long Labor Day break, which lasts half of August and September, rather than do their job and address the IRS Code. We are willing to bet that most of the people these clowns represent would like to take three, four or even five weeks off to celebrate what for the regular people, you know, their lessers, get to celebrate as a three day weekend unless they use their vacation days. That is correct. The members of Congress who were unable to deliver on their seven year promise and the number one item they campaigned upon for almost a decade, the repeal of Obamacare, decided they required a month off to recover from their arduous debates and then inability to pass, not one, not two, but any of three different means for repealing Obamacare as promised. There was a reason why they had three different bills which they voted on in one day, rejecting one after the other, but allowing those who desired to oppose President Trump to each at least vote for one of the repeals or even two while making sure that they had sufficient opposition each time so all three would fail. This is an old trick that the members of Congress have pulled nearly forever. They make multiple versions of a bill they have promised to support. Then they all support at least one of the versions while the majority votes down each version. Then they can all go home and tout how they supported the single version they did vote for while disavowing that they voted against the other versions. This is how they deceive without actually being caught in a lie and more often than not the media only check to see if what they stated was true, not whether the spirit of their statement was true. The media and the political elites are all in the same party circles and become friends and friends help one another, that is only normal. Who wants new faces on their party circuit, that means getting used to a whole new person who will need breaking in and being taught how the games are played.

 

Congress will now get to play games with the tax reform packages. They will have numerous, possibly hard to count versions of tax reform and they will divide up between them how to vote so even the most contemptible Democrat will be able to tell his moneyed supporters how they fought tooth and nail to get them the breaks in the tax code they deserve. It is all about making the lies believable and having the right votes in place to back the lie despite their arranging the votes for just that purpose. We will hear reason after reason as to why there was no tax reform or that the loopholes just could not be removed because other members of Congress worked against your particular representatives in the House and Senate while they worked like dogs trying to make the new tax package more fair. Oh, how they worked themselves to the bone going to all the different Washington parties then showing up to work at the ungodly hour of eleven in the morning and going home at two-thirty so they would miss rush hour and oh the pains they went through. Oh, wait, they will never be that honest. They will try and pass the party which lasted until two in the morning as the time they were working the others in Congress to vote for their package which was just so fair and unblemished. Of course, the rich had too much influence and your attempt to be the super person of the little people failed. The poor Congress critter worked so hard between the events every night of the week.

 

Now, we will mention that there are the few people in Congress who actually are representing their constituents and the people as a whole, but these are the members who are easy to spot. The first thing is they are rarely in the news and their picture is almost never in the major newspapers. Next, they are the ones who most often have a party plant put against them in their primary and the party does all they can to supplant them and they are always the underdog. Some of these members of Congress are so egregious that they never receive any support from the national party or often the state party and even have their party work against them in the general elections as they feel it is better to have the opposition for one term and then they can run a party line person they can control the next election. If you ever find that you have such a person in the Congress, hold on to them as far too many in Congress are purely party functionaries. They do not represent their constituents; they represent money and party plain and simple. If ever there was a need for such people to be placed in the Congress, the next election is crucial. If it were possible to elect almost all members to Congress who had never been in politics before, that time has arrived if the nation is to be rescued.

 

There is a reason that the Congress is currently stymied and unable to function and that is being done on purpose. The political machine, and there is only one real political machine and both the Democrat and Republican Parties are parts of a single entity. The machine serves the major industries which have the capital to invest in making sure that each party gets their turn at the big prize, the White House. The machine every so often does manage to lose its iron grasp on the White House and must then rely on the Congress to assure that no real damage is incurred. The election of Donald Trump as President is one of those times that the machine lost the big prize. The fix was supposed to be in and Hillary Clinton was presumed to be the next President once the others, Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, Marco Rubio or even worst-case scenario, Ted Cruz lost and the uncontrollable Donald Trump became the Republican candidate. The machine had not counted on Hillary Clinton as their candidate and was counting on the Republicans to choose wisely, the people refused to be smart, imagine that. The machine had given the Republicans the nod as after eight years of a Democrat, they could read the tea leaves and the leaves indicated the Republican Party had the advantage in the race for the White House. When the Republican candidate turned out to be a rogue from outside the regular field, the machine had no recourse as the Democrats had given them a ham-handed candidate, as flawed as the Republican. They went with the horse they knew and could influence and would play the game; they went with Hillary. Their only hope was to convince the world that Hillary was popular which required her having high polling numbers and looking assured of the win. This may have backfired but that is something we will never know for sure. Now they have to deal with President Trump so the Congress must make sure he does as little damage to those who actually control the government. Let us all hope that they fail at this.

 

Capitol Cash Machine

 

There is one thing people can do which will pay dividends down the road. If your have a member of the House of Representatives who has been in Washington over ten years, replace them. Once your Senator has served two, three terms at the most, replace them. Washington D.C. has a corrupting influence which taints anybody not raised inside the Capital Beltway as only those raised that close to purgatory are capable of resisting its powers. Those who come from outside soon have their guts torn apart and they are refilled with money and corrupt practices. Every member of Congress and their staffers cannot resist and act any other way because they almost all have lived beyond the normal laws. There is an easy means for telling if your members of Congress have taken the bait and become corrupted, their net worth. If your member of Congress was worth less than two million dollars before going to Washington and now are worth over five and likely twenty million dollars, then vote them out and fast. There is this neat little thing about being in Congress or a staffer; you are not subject to inside trading laws. This means you can buy stock in companies who are about to receive large sums of government contracts before the vote or anybody else knows about this and you can sell your stock in companies being investigated by Congress before the reports come out to the media or before they do not get that contract or their merger will not be approved, all things you know ahead of their actual occurrence. This allows you to trade stocks with great confidence and amass quite a large amount of wealth rather quickly. The catch is once you get onto this gravy train you will be voting your pocket and not your constituents’ pockets. This makes you a liability to your voters and the nation and makes you a bought person. This makes you toxic and you need replacing, period. We believe that most honest Americans would agree with this analysis, so please spread the world and let the people clean up the mess in Washington D.C.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Middle East Peace Made Impossible by Israel

 

Yes, you read the title correctly though I cannot take credit for that phrase. That has been the attitude and agreed policy of the Arab world as declared by the Arab League in Khartoum, Sudan on September 1, 1967 (one day before my birthday, what a lousy present) when they unanimously approved the Khartoum Resolution. The most famous quote, if only due to our usage of it, are the three No’s, No peace with Israel, No recognition of Israel, No negotiations with Israel. When Egyptian President made peace with Israel in direct negotiations with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, the Arab League soon afterwards removed Egypt from the Arab League. Egypt was subsequently readmitted as the Arab League cannot really claim to represent the Arabs and not include the Arab nation with the largest population. Having Jordan also make peace with Israel did not exactly help the Arab League as evicting every nations for breaking the three No’s rules would have left the body denuded of much of the Arab nations in time, and they realized this. Their hope when they drafted the Khartoum Resolution was that in a few years, after they had rearmed and initiated fixes which would make their militaries more effective, then they would all come together and bring about the destruction of Israel. This was their reaction to the June 1967 Six Day War, where the war was initiated by Egypt and Syria, at that time under a form of alliance and conjoined leadership under Gamal Abdel Nasser, which started with war rhetoric in almost every broadcast as well as massed troops along the Golan Heights and the across the entirety of the Negev-Sinai Peninsula borders.

 

Israeli intelligence had come across battle plans that denoted a presumed time for the initiation of hostilities and Israel planned accordingly. Very early on that morning the Israeli Air Force launched their preemptive strike, an action permitted in the Rules of War allowing any nation the right to act offensively when facing certain and immediate threat by hostile nations and still considered as a defensive move. The Israeli intelligence went as far as to denote for the pilots which planes on the airfields were dummies and which were actual aircraft. Pilots were told to memorize the positions, especially of the dummy aircraft as they were rarely moved, and to strike any aircraft that was not in any of those positions. Reports on the effectiveness of the strike vary on the percentages of the Egyptian and Syrian aircraft destroyed, with numbers ranging from two thirds to over ninety-five percent, with the main thing being that in this one strike the Israelis had won the air war and now had total air superiority. What is important to remember for the debate raging today over Judea and Samaria (West Bank) is that Jordan was not one of the initial participants. Upon King Hussein bin Talal hearing the glowing reports coming over Radio and Television of the Egypt and Syria grand victories, he paid attention. The further news that they were crushing the weak and pathetic Israel forces with the Egyptian and Syrian forces to meet in the center of Tel Aviv imminently, he could no longer resist. Well, King Hussein bin Talal also wanted to share in the glory of being amongst the destroyers of the Zionist Entity, Israel. The Israelis pleaded, begged him not to believe the lies and propaganda and to remain neutral. King Hussein bin Talal thought that assuredly the Israelis were losing, why else would they plead so pathetically for him to stay from the war. Jordan attacked on the second day of the war. Israel diverted one division to meet the Jordanian attacks, sent some air cover, and armored troops. The rest, as they say, is history and Israel retook, liberated is a better term, the Judean and Samarian areas that Jordan had illegally occupied since 1948. Yes, you read that correctly, Jordan occupied, Israel liberated, the land was supposed to be part of Israel since the agreements made between 1920 and 1925 and formalized in numerous treaties, conventions and declarations. Got that? Good.

 

The Arabs, or at least the Egyptians and the Syrians, did not have to wait very long for the rematch, which came Yom Kippur morning of 1973. This was probably the greatest and most favorable of conditions for an Arab victory, which appeared inevitable with their initial gains and the Israeli confusion. With the majority of the military and nearly all reservists at Synagogue for High Holiday Prayers and nobody answering telephones, listening to the radio or watching television, how were they to gather the troops? The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) had to resort to jeeps traveling from Synagogue to Synagogue with loud speakers mounted declaring the emergency. As the soldiers scrambled to get their gear, they faced another problem, where was their unit joining up? IDF soldiers began forming their own units with the others who were available even to the point of arming clerks and other non-combat soldiers and headed for the front lines in whatever formation they could establish. With time, they formed up units and Command became aware of what facilities and troops they had and where they were located and began reorganizing into actual strike groups. After taking horrendous losses and losing large numbers of troops, the remainder was gathering but too late for those already facing dire situations on the front lines. Some units fought to the last man but most, faced with no alternative but surrender or die, surrendered. The forces gathered under emergency conditions though somehow held a secondary front with some tall tales told, some even presumably verified. The IDF prevailed and the end lines of the conflict did not change. At the end of the conflict, Israeli troops were within a few miles of Damascus and closing on Cairo and Alexandria. Under pressures from Russia and Israeli “ally” the United States, Israel returned all the way back to the Golan Heights and the Suez Canal.

 

The official position of the Arab League is stated by the Palestinian Authority leadership. The Arab League meets with Mahmoud Abbas, and before him Yasser Arafat, and the rest of the Palestinian leadership on a regular basis where tactics and other necessities are discussed. Usually the most pressing issue is the one any normal person would not expect, the need for more money. The Palestinian Authority received billions of dollars and Euros of aid from the United States, European Union, United Nations and numerous individual European nations all on top of what the Arab nations such as Saudi Arabia gift to them. They have received sufficient funding that made Yasser Arafat a billionaire, has made Mahmoud Abbas a billionaire and kept him in power against all odds simply because he has bought the support of sufficient numbers of commanders in the security forces and other leading figures in the Palestinian power structure. Many of these people are multi-millionaires and some approaching, of not breaching, into billionaire status. Proof of the excessive funding of the Palestinian Authority is evidenced by the planned meeting halls, barracks (one must plan for safety in one abode), and living quarters (rather lavish living quarters) all for Mahmoud Abbas to be built near Ramallah (pictured below). The complex is expected to cost thirteen million dollars and include four thousand square meters of building space sitting on twenty-seven square meters of land including parking lot. The structure is to be referred to as the Presidential Guest Palace. Nothing too ostentatious about that title, is there? Abbas in meetings with the Arab league usually runs into difficulties when he has been meeting with the Israelis in events referred to as peace negotiations. He has regularly informed them there will never be any peace and that he is simply leading the Israelis down the garden path collecting concessions and land while step-by-step pushing the Jews westward into the sea.

 

 

These words are just the beginning of what Abbas has said in Arabic, when he speaks in English, the worlds are inconsequential, as he has explained to the Arab League and to the Palestinian people. He warned them that when he speaks to them in Arabic the Westerners do not listen or understand as they are too lazy or unconcerned about Israel to go to the effort of translating these speeches and he is free to speak truth. On the other hand, when he speaks is English he simply says sweet words that they want to hear and smiles as a smile and sweet words will win their affections and empties their pockets. He gives the West exactly what Islam demands of him, Taqiyya (defined below in graphic). He uses these deceptions to steal their money just as Muhammad did to the caravan merchants and is constantly moving Israel towards a position in which they will be unable to defend their lands. His only aim is the eventual Arab conquest of their lands from the usurper Jews, the Zionists who stole their lands. To hear what Abbas really says one need only go to MEMRI web site and search for videos, news articles and whatever else you might want to find out what is said in Arabic. These clips, televised speeches and articles, more often than not, never seem to appear in newspapers or discussions amongst Western politicians. The few who do mention such items end up needing twenty-four hour a day protection and live their lives in hiding or close to it with some requiring untold protections such as Geert Wilders and Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

 

Taqiyya defined in plain and simple easy to understand terms

 

 

Back on subject, as the title says, Middle East Peace Made Impossible by Israel is a true but hopefully not valid statement. The problem is not that Israel will not accept some compromises, she had made offers considered generous even by President William Jefferson Clinton and, in this case, Yasser Arafat walked out of the meeting in Paris, returned to Ramallah and launched the Second Intifada. In that case, President Clinton had met with Arafat receiving what he demanded for making peace. Arafat gave him a presumably lengthy list of conditions, a group of which he knew Israel would never accept. He made one vital miscalculation, he was offering peace, real peace, or so he had stated. President Clinton then met with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and by the time everything was said and done, the deal was accepted by the Israelis. Arafat walked out because he had been caught and had miscalculated how far exactly the Israelis were willing to bend to reach a peace agreement. Conditions Arafat saw as back breaking unacceptability were in fact hard and difficult sacrifices, but in the end, peace made the Israelis to bend past their breaking points for peace. There were a few more offers made which were called the Taba Summit. The efforts terminated, which coincided with the Inauguration of President George W. Bush and the elections in Israel, with the changes in leadership and Arab intractability leading to its failure. Israeli negotiator Shlomo Ben-Ami stated about the efforts, “We made progress, substantial progress. We are closer than ever to the possibility of striking a final deal.” He perhaps was correct, but closer to what will always produce a negative response, as the other side is unable to make any peace that leaves you in existence is a fruitless accomplishment. On the other side, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat stated, “My heart aches because I know we were so close. We need six more weeks to conclude the drafting of the agreement.” There exists a problem with Mr. Erekat’s words, almost all of his words, as all one need do is negate the meaning of what he states when he says peace and replace them with the ideas of total victory and the elimination of the Jewish State. The one credit people need to grant the leadership of Hamas, they mean what they say. There is an agreement between the Palestinian Authority who never removed from their Charter the stipulation that they exist to eradicate Israel. The difference is that Hamas goes one step further and simply means to eradicate Jews everywhere.

 

Camp David Talks on a Break as President Bill Clinton, Yasser Arafat and Prime Minister Ehud Barak Stroll the Grounds of the Complex Located Ten Miles North of Frederick, Maryland

 

The means by which Israel makes reaching any peace impossible is that Israel exists as a Jewish State with a majority Jewish population and governance which holds to Jewish values, which is to say Judeo-Christian values as the differences between the two are minor when one weighs their politics and relations with other nations. The Arabs will accept an Israel with a majority Muslim Arab population and claims that the Jews would be safe as Israel is a democracy. The truth is the existence of election and rule by majority votes does not guarantee safety if the majority deem one group no longer acceptable to live on this Earth. With an Arab Muslim majority population Israel would be very similar to the description in James Bovard’s book, Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty (1994), on page 333, where one reads, “Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.” In this case the Muslims would be the wolves and Jews the lamb. That is quite unlike Israel today where the Jews and the Muslims are equal citizens within Israel. Claiming that the Israelis have anything to do with the rule of the Arab Palestinians is false as they are ruled entirely by the Palestinian Authority and the reason they have not had an election in over a decade is because Abbas knows he would lose his office and the gravy train that comes with that office. The fact that if he did not leave fast enough before the election results and loss of security forces protecting him would also mean he would lose more than an election. The interactions between Israeli political entities are through negotiations. Security is applied solely for two reasons, first, to prevent terrorists from succeeding in any plans to harm anyone including the settlers who legally reside where they are under current international law, and second, whenever Palestinian Arabs are entering Israeli lands for protection of Israelis and to assure they have a valid reason. For all intents and purposes, the crossing out from the Palestinian Authority controlled area whether into Israel or Jordan is the same, they are basically entering another country. This is even more natural for Jordan as a number of Palestinian Arabs still maintain their Jordanian passports and have citizenship identification proving their being Jordanian citizens. Still, Jordan considers them Palestinian Arabs even to include those they forced to move into the areas after they illegally annexed the lands after 1948.

 

Israel is not going to meet the final two demands the Palestinian Arabs, the Saudi Arabian Peace Initiative and every other dealing with Israel contain. These both have the same end in sight, no more Jewish State. News flash, there is but one Jewish State just as there is one French State, one Japanese State, one British State, two Chinese States, two Korean States and twenty-two Arab States oops, well, you understand. The truth is the Jews in Israel have nowhere else they can go. Half, approximately, of the Jews in Israel have either one parent or both parents who came to Israel after facing either harsh treatment or threat of death from the rulers of the Arab state in which they lived throughout the MENA* area. These nations are not about to take back a single Jew, especially those born in Israel. The same is true about the European nations and Russia; they too will refuse to repatriate their Jews and especially their progeny. That leaves the United States and here too there would be a great problem as there is a record of how the United States acts when faced with near to one thousand Jews fleeing a tyrannical nation bent on their eradication. This action was taken by Franklin Delano Roosevelt regarding the ship the MS St. Louis. May 1939, also referred to as The Voyage of the Damned, which was also the name of the 1976 dramatic film based on the book written by Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan-Witts of the same title. To end the suspense, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt decided, after Cuba refused to permit the Jews from exiting the ship, that the United States had no obligation for the rescue of these refugees and they can find safety in Europe. One must keep in mind that the leaders of both Britain and the United States knew fully about the Holocaust and decided that by allowing it continuation it would weaken Germany, as resources would necessarily be diverted to murdering Jews instead of fighting allied soldiers. The claim was these were tactics, allowing the mass slaughter of approaching if not exceeding twelve-million innocent people simply because they were different or handicapped. The list of those to be exterminated is an easy one to compile, Nazi Germany targeted Jews, Roma (Gypsies), mentally challenged, handicapped, political prisoners, Polish, Russian and some simply because they upset some high German official. The Jews of Israel would receive the same treatment today if Israel fell and they were facing annihilation. Not to worry, we know this and that is why when forced to we fight with every ounce of our fiber, all our lives depend on that. The Arabs can lose as many wars against Israel as they instigate, as Israel is not going to take their lands and the people living there. That was part of the reason for returning the Sinai Peninsula, Israel did not desire taking in the people or defending the lands. Israel is not expansionary. All Israel desired is that which was promised us, which includes Judea and Samaria. We do not desire being refugees in another land, we just want the land and freedom to rule ourselves we were promised. All the Arabs want is that promise rescinded and the Jews removed by whatever means necessary.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

* Middle East and North Africa, also often used to describe the core of the Muhammad Empire, the lands conquered and colonized turning many into Arab majority nations.

 

One Single Change Would Wipe Out 90% Congressional Corruption

 

If you spend any time on social media you can only come to one conclusion, graft is everywhere except with the less that powerful. The wealthy get away with everything up to and even including murder, though murder is the toughest one to escape. Congress has far too many members who spend three terms, or even two, and if one is astute, one term and walk away as multimillionaires. Many people ask as to how this can be. Many understand and know why this can be and often is. Senators and Representatives are covered by laws which exempt them from insider trading. So if there is a defense bill coming to a vote and the members of Congress know that in six weeks it will pass, it will easily give company XYZ a multi-billion dollar contract which is hundreds of times more than their budget for the previous five years combined. XYZ stock is selling at $1.23 a share six weeks out, so many, but not all as they take turns according to seniority, buy a thousand shares. The bill passes and Wall Street lights up and within two days that stock now sells for $327.77 a share. The Congress members sell their stock at this point making over $325,000.00 for a six week and two day investment in a stock because they cannot be charged with insider trading. This simple trick goes for much more than defense legislation and at every level of government. In the little township, county, city or borough where you live they repair roads, bridges and build parking garages and hire companies to manage all kinds of government projects. Going into such contracts these are often small family businesses with under twenty-five employees and just initially making stock options. That places their stock initially on the volatile IPO (Initial Public Offering) market which is usually the home for high risk, high reward investors and not for the faint of heart. But when you know that a small operation is about to receive a multi-million dollar, multi-year contract that market becomes far less risky and investing becomes a sure bet. This is the sleight of hand, crooked investing which can be found throughout government at all levels. Often those who would prosecute such criminal acts are also clued in on investments when the opportunity is great enough to allow a broad group to make huge benefits without actually raising too much attention. This is why you find so much money going into governmental elections and influencing because the returns are far beyond the pittance invested. Giving a number of city electors a hundred thousand dollars into their election funding and then after they defeat their opponent who received one fifth the amount they will receive multi-million dollar contracts and the city electors investing wisely become millionaires within a few years and move to Tahiti if they are smart, or buy their own newly charted island and refuse extradition to the United States.

 

This is nothing new as it has been how the Senators in Rome maintained their wealth and how the Caesars ruled over these Senators distributing government monies to those who supported them and not the others. The first Caesar, Julius Caesar made a single mistake, he kept the money with the people and refused to feed the graft machine which was the Senate and the commanders of the legions. This resulted in his big day on the Senate steps where he was made into a pincushion using tens of knives as the pins with the final pin, some claim the fifty-first knife, plunged into Caesar’s back by Brutus, “Et tu Brutus?” Wars were fought throughout antiquity to steal the wealth and enrich the King and their closest advisors and generals who commanded the troops protecting the King and winning their wars. Eventually rulers figured out they could simply tax their subjects and by taking a small to modest amount from each subject reap great wealth. Some rulers made the fatal mistake of figuring that if a modest amount granted great wealth, then doubling the tax would double their wealth. That failed as once you cross a critical point draining from the economy the economy becomes unstable and the gravy train dries up and the people revolt. So many greedy kings found their people to be revolting right before they met the guillotine, the sword or other form of execution, some far less noble at the hands of the rabble. Governmental systems have changed, governing has not. Governing is still how to provide the people with sufficient services and comfort while stealing as much as the market will bear enriching the governing. Can this poisoning of government be rooted out and extinguished? Probably not for as Campaign Finance Reform should have taught the people of the United States is that no matter how you rig the game and what you do to take the money from the hands and supporting structures of the elected public servants, they will simply invent some way around the laws, appear not to actually control what they are forbidden, have an indirect but close knot control of these funds and will make away with the wealth in the end. What is more diabolical and evil are those high government employees who are just below the appointed position who are civil servants, thus presumably untouchable by those in power, gaining wealth through careful investing and manipulation of portfolios to take advantage of information which comes across their desks as part of enacting the particulars of legislations. This has gotten far more prevalent as the legislation leaves the entirety of the building and enacting the structures to fulfill the demands of vague legislations thus allowing much of the distribution of contracts and such to these civil servants. There is little chance that these civil servants are all so clean as to not make investments or find other means of enriching themselves. There are far too many very wealthy government employees whose salaries are less than twenty-five thousand dollars a year, how did they become wealthy? Little problem in figuring that out, is there.

 

Shine a Light on Corruption

 

Money is the grease which oils the wheels of government. That remains true to this day and will likely remain true far into the future. The opportunities to become wealthy from being in the right place to hear the next outlay of millions of dollars by government cannot be eliminated until the government is trusted to machines, and then the question will be who monitors and runs the machines. All we can do is alter where the weakest links are placed and thus who gains from inside information. The history of mankind has in part been the history of seeking perfect governance and the failure at virtually every juncture. There was once a governance which was as close to that perfection people seek but is unwieldy as the people must have the faith to trust their safety and protection from other nations and their invasions or other entreaties to an entity they cannot know and claim daily their inability to understand their ruling entity trusting the messengers who claim to be the sole recipients of that wisdom. This was the ruling by Hashem over the initial Israelite Tribes through the prophets and judges. There was not government largess to benefit from its wealth and how it was distributed as all was in the hands of Hashem and there were no government programs. Roads were made by people traveling between locations using the same route which eventually packs the ground making a clear and obvious path, not what you would desire to drive your brand new Lexus across but perfectly fine for your donkey. Even the advances far, far back around 1100 BCE forced the Israelites to demand to have a King like the neighboring nations to lead their army and protect them from the threats emerging around them and Torah records that Hashem told the Judges and Prophets that should the Israelites demand some form of governance to provide them security, then they should be permitted such governance. This resulted in their taking a king asking the leading prophet to anoint their king leading to King Saul. Saul was not the worst of kings or the best, but his reign led directly through some odd circumstance to King David and then King Solomon which was the shining period where the tribes of Israel were united into a singular nation which conquered lands up to the Euphrates River (see maps below showing Twelve Tribes, King David and Solomon conquest and the promised lands for Israel according to treaties from World War I). Following Kings were less successful with the eventual downfall which coincided with a king who was an idolater and placed idols inside Solomon’s Temple, a low point for the Tribes of Israel. Over the next centuries the Israelites managed to throw off tyrants or be granted autonomy under the sovereignty of a greater power. The Israelites were even permitted to build the Second Temple which included Herod building what is today the Western Wall, built over six hundred years before the founding of Islam and about a century before the birth of Jesus. Herod made himself great amounts of wealth, sufficient to build himself a mountain with a castle and burial crypt in the Northern Negev and live a lavish life of opulence simply by giving the people what they demanded, the Temple Complex, and collect taxes in order to provide the people their desires while fulfilling his own. This has been the formula of effective governance for centuries both before and since, especially since. Many of the iconic public works projects, if investigated and audited meticulously would reveal that many within the government and closely tied to people in the governance and especially with the planning of public works gained great wealth. Be the works be a huge clock in the middle of London, a great dock providing thousands of new jobs in Amsterdam or almost any public work one could mention.

 

 

So, how can the vast majority of this corruption, this theft of the public treasure be prevented? The quickest would be to subject politicians and public servants (government workers) to the same laws as the public and demand an accounting of their incomes and investments as well as careful auditing of all contracts. Make all government bids by law be the final price charged with no cost overruns, no additional surprises, and no adjustments or new demands during production that allow for fudging numbers and hiding payouts. Adding that whatever the estimated date of delivery be set such that any time overrun resulting in a percentage of the initial payments budgeted being returned to government as a means of compensating the public for these delays. This would force defense contractors to make realistic and exacting bids instead of making a lowball bid knowing they can increase the cost through delays and cost overrun demands after the initial bid is accepted. The F-35 JSF is a prime example with it coming to delivery a good part of a decade late with cost overruns and technical problems resulting in the price of each fighter costing a good deal closer to double the expected and quoted price. Had these costs been included in the initial bid it is quite possible that the bid might have gone to a competitor. The current development and bidding system used by government contractors, especially in the defense industry, is to guess at what it might cost and to make a bid at three-quarters of that estimate completely confident that the remainder and more sufficient to make the profit desired as well as cover any difficulties along the way. This is a legalized form for guaranteeing theft. If, on the other hand, contractors were made to provide what they promised for the price they bid, and not a plug nickel over, then the bids would be far more realistic and shades higher to cover the expected of the unexpected, or should we simply call it the unplanned snags and other complications. This would allow the government and the voting public, should they be interested, to understand, and know ahead of time, exactly what projects will cost. Currently the public knows that the quoted bids are a ruse and perhaps if they were guaranteed these bids would be the exact delivery price the public might take a real interest. As things are, why bother with the bidding when one really need wait as long as a decade to find out the actual delivery price because there is little or no actual oversight.

 

Government needs to become a business, not a joke, a poke in the dark where truth is a rare commodity and concealed misappropriation the rule of thumb. If a butcher ran his store as governments are run his scale would be off by 10% and he would often have his thumb on the scale as well. Nothing would be as it appears and the rule of buyer be wary would be most necessary. Governments, when designed in democratic based nations, are presumed to be open and to be overseen by the people who by being informed can make solid and reasoned votes for their representatives. Oh, if only this were true. The reality is we elect our candidates or parties, pending on whether we have a representative democracy or a parliamentary system, according to elaborate shows designed to thrill and titillate the public with elaborate deceptions designed to sell the product making it appear more responsible than the governance’s results. The entire production is very Hollywood and just as much a fantasy. This all results in a governance just as deceptive as are the campaigns and the people depicted therein. There is an easy way which we can attest from our experience in running a campaign for the United States House of Representatives where we spent at most $10,000 and received more voted per dollar than either of our high priced opponents despite not quite garnering 3% of the vote (still the record for third party candidates where we ran). Now we feel it is important to point out that this was a campaign for a job which pays $174,000 per year (current salary) for two years for a total of $348,000 total before having to run again. Our two opponents each spent very close to the same amount on their campaigns which was estimated to have been that one spent $1,200,000 and the other spent $2,200,000. These figures for our opponents do not include PAC and Party funds and advertising. Please explain how that explains spending for a job paying $348,000 which only one of us had even a dream of showing a profit unless something else was going on. And Americans complain they cannot figure out what is wrong with their governance. Of course this is not something peculiar to the United States but exists in every government across the world. Democratic nations probably suffer the least from such deception as they do kind of have to answer to the people and when the people get upset, that distress trumps all else. In dictatorial regimes the difference is far more marked as the ruling elite get the best of what is available, that is when there is a best of available to be had. In those places suffering the worst governances imaginable, such as North Korea and Venezuela, eating and having even the necessities can be considered an extravagance. Until we return to Hashem ruling the people or machines keeping humans as their pets, there will be those people using the government for self-enrichment. Always has been and always will be, or so it appears.

 

Beyond the Cusp