Transparency – Missing in Action
As the policy direction of the current administration and this Congress unfolds, we find ourselves wondering what he and his people/Party are trying to do?
I shouldn’t have to ask that question.
Biden promised to ‘restore democracy’ while campaigning. I think we’re getting just the opposite. And it’s not just me.
In August the WH Correspondents Association filed a formal complaint against President Biden for failing to answer questions from American media. In other words, the lack of transparency.
The complaint followed a press conference after the President met with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson at which Johnson took three questions. But when Biden was asked a question, WH staffers shouted down his answer by yelling ““THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. LET’S GO. THANK YOU” – and the press conference was over.
The president’s avoidance of answering questions is obvious. It’s our experience with him in the oval office. His ‘handlers” don’t want him in any personal, public exchanges with anyone. There’s lots of speculation as to why, in which I won’t participate today.
Biden signed a flurry of executive orders his first day in office. Most of them negated policies instituted by President Trump. Many others were aimed at his idea of dealing with climate change and immigration.
It’s transparent, although denied in the face of facts, that President Biden and his minions have opened the southern border to illegal immigrants. What’s not transparent is where the feds are putting these people. We have no idea where the 1.7 million illegals entering so far this year were taken or went when released. If we did, we might object. So, the WH has apparently concluded we, the people, are better off not knowing.
The recent EO lifting of the law that forbids employers from hiring illegals is illegal – and few people know it happened. Why are those laws now to be ignored as well as the laws governing illegals getting into the country in the first place?
One of the great things about the initial ‘Build, Back, Better’ bill is that it has taken longer to get it through Congress that was hoped by the WH and Congressional leaders. The great thing is the delay has given Congress and the rest of us time to know a lot more about what’s in the bill – things that were planned we did not know and don’t support. Some ‘walk the line Democrats’ have backed off and out of numerous provisions therein that go too far even for marginal ‘progressives.’ The plan, much like Obamacare, was to be revealed after it became law. This legislation was not to be transparent before passage. It was deliberately meant to be opaque for the very reason it’s delayed.
For example, we discovered a provision adding 87 thousand employees to the IRS payroll, including to receive and review the information from our banks on transactions of $600+. Once found out, that provision was raised to $10,000+. Regardless of the number, it’s an unwarranted intrusion for everyone with a bank account who buys a home, a vehicle or central air conditioning. There’s a huge new tax on natural gas when used for home heating or electric power generation. Perhaps the worst revenue-generating provision is to tax unrealized capital gains. This is not just aimed at m/billionaires; it’s aimed at you and me if our houses are worth more than what we paid for them. You didn’t sell your house and realize any gain, you just own it – but you could pay tax on the estimated increased value. Then there’s the raising of the corporate income tax from 21% to 28%. All these provisions take money out of the private economy on which the government relies for its revenue. This at a time when we realize we’re too dependent on foreign countries for critical supplies and need more incentives to domestically produce them. It also assumes there will be no change in behaviors by people and corporations attempting to avoid paying the increased taxes. It ends up being transparently un-democratic and deliberately opaque.
Sticking with that bill for one more moment, President Biden has repeatedly told the country the bill costs nothing. Trillions of more spending by the government, regardless of who and what is taxed additionally, is not zero spending. Who’s kidding who? It goes beyond opaque, it’s a bald-faced lie.
Policies and EO’s have devastated US oil and gas production this year under the guise of climate change. That has resulted in the biggest concern for Americans right now – inflation.
Throw in the Afghanistan withdrawal fiasco. No one has been held responsible or accountable for abandoning US citizens and allies in August. We’re apparently to accept nobody is accountable. Opaque.
Then there’s the COVID mandates. We’ve all heard and seen the so-called experts and political hacks ignoring the science, common sense and the Constitution. People are fed up with mixed messages on the subject and most of the decrees are not only unconstitutional but dysfunctional.
Did your member of House or your senators’ campaign to do what they’ve done and are now considering?
Did our president campaign to open the borders, shut down our energy independence or to have critical race theory taught in all of our public schools and to all federal employees, including all members of the military?
If he did, he certainly was not transparent about it.
So here we are, November 2021.
Biden’s poll numbers are in the tank for good reason. He’s moving fast toward the (un)popular opinion now about Congress where 12% approve. More people are wising up to what’s going on and not being told – and they don’t like it.
We expect our representatives to take off their political party blinders for a minute and look around – and start listening to us. If they don’t, we need to give them the old, double middle finger sign and get rid of them ASAP regardless of Party.
The “ruling class” is ‘killing’ us and this once great country. They need to shed their presumed higher place in our society and become one of us again – and telling us the whole truth. We’ll only ‘eat cake’ for so long.
Individual liberty and responsibility – the winning recipe we are now expected to blindly scorn.
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Have a great and prosperous week.
Hug somebody.
References:
https://taxfoundation.org/biden-corporate-income-tax-rate/
https://nypost.com/2021/10/20/us-majority-say-biden-policies-responsible-for-inflation-poll/
SPIDER Bites
A team from the U. of Geneva, Switzerland has developed a new system to counter hacking computer data and info. It’s based on the principle of relativity – that information cannot travel faster than the speed of light. It allows users to identify themselves without disclosing personal information. It’s a complex system to set up, but once done could be easy to use by us “computer neophytes” to guarantee security. They’re calling it “zero-knowledge proofs.” Stay tuned.
Last week we talked about how dimples on golf balls make them go farther and straighter and mused about why we don’t have dimples on airplanes. A former jet fighter pilot reader informed me about “Bernoulli’s Principle” – whereby the shape of the wing provides lift. Following Bernoulli’s Principle, air moves faster over the curved top of the wing than the flat surface below. It’s called ‘airfoil.’ As the air moves faster above the wing that air creates less pressure and causes lift. He also pointed out that’s why high thrust, flat winged, fighter jets need a longer runway to take off. Flat wings do create less drag and once in the air the flatter wings make the craft more maneuverable – and can even fly upside down. This stuff is fascinating to me. Oh, the reason there’s no dimples on planes; they would apparently make little or no difference in the aerodynamic properties of airplanes. Let’s not stop learning.
Samsung, a S. Korean corporation and the world’s largest chip maker, announced it will build a $17B manufacturing facility in Texas over the next several years. Texas wooed Samsung with huge tax breaks for the first 10 years of production.
If Nick Sandman won gobs of money from various media outlets re: defamation, malice, and slander over the biased coverage – falsely portraying the Kentucky teen as the antagonist in an encounter initiated by a Native American elder – Kyle Rittenhouse may become rich soon. Both pre- and post-trial media pronouncements have been lambasting the 18-year-old who was found “not guilty.” Candidate Biden may be sued.
Disney ended its vaccine mandate in Florida last week. Recent FL laws and a stay by two federal appeals courts of Biden’s workplace vaccine mandate prompted the ‘pause’ by Disney, the largest, single site employer in the country with 62,000+ at Walt Disney World in Orlando.
The budget busting “Build Back Better” bill will be modified in the Senate, but debate is now delayed in the Senate. Meanwhile a large group of House Democrats are urging their Senate counterparts to ignore their parliamentarian, and their own rules, re: a provision that would provide a pathway to citizenship to an estimated 7M illegal immigrants by granting them a five-year ‘parole’ status does not follow reconciliation rules, which state that only procedures that directly change federal spending and revenue can be included in such bills.
President Biden announced last week he’s releasing 50M barrels from our Strategic Oil Reserve to allay inflation. We use over 18M barrels/day. So, a great 3-day band-aid will blunt inflation? Dah. BTW, The Dollar Store will soon be called the Buck and a Quarter store.
Oh, the ‘word police’ now say ‘looting’ is a racist term. ‘Organized robbery’ is apparently now acceptable, we’re told.
A Wisconsin court set bail at $5M for the long rap sheeted, Waukesha parade killer. He should be ‘held without bail.’ Enough fear and suffering by innocents!
