Stop Pulling the Wagon

UNDERSTANDING THE NATURE OF THE “BEAST”

I would like to preface this piece with a statement.  First, I do not believe the vast majority of those who work in “public service” are evil.  Most are just folks like you and me.  They have families and bills to pay and desire some quality of life with safety and as much financial security as possible. Secondly, some government services are essential, whether performed by employees or contractors:  Safety, Fire Protection, National Defense, Infrastructure Integrity, Education and availability of Health Care for example.

The problem with the “Beast” is that we are all human and desire guaranteed security and do not want to “work ourselves out of a job” so that our services are no longer needed. Many, maybe most, government “services” and agencies were created to solve a problem, but,  if the problem they were created for were ever solved, the agency or department  would no longer be needed.  Example:  If poverty were eliminated there would be no need for a welfare system or the bureaucracy that supports it.  Hence, there is an incentive to prolong the “problem”, even expand it to make it grow.  And, for most employees, they acquire lifetime benefits and retirement pay in a job they can’t be fired from and will never go away.  All paid for by the taxpayers.  Tell me, if you are a career bureaucrat working in that department what incentive do you have for poverty to vanish?

Another example would be the U.S. Department of energy – an article from 2012 follows below.

Ronald Reagan once said: “Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see on this earth!”  

An anonymous story of how government programs become “eternal”

Once upon a time the government had a vast scrap yard in the middle of a desert.  Congress said, “Someone may steal from it at night”.  So they created a night watchman position and hired a person for the job.  Then Congress said, “how does the watchman do his job without instruction?”

So they created a planning department and hired two people.  One person to write the instructions, and one person to do time studies.  Then Congress said, “How will we know the night watchman is doing the tasks correctly?”  So they created a Quality Control department and hired two people.  One was to do the studies and one was to write the reports.

Then Congress said, “how are these people going to get paid?”  So they created two positions: a time keeper and a payroll officer, then hired two people.  Then Congress said, “Who will be accountable for all of these people?”  So they created an administrative section and hired three people, an Administrative Officer, Assistant Administrative Officer, and a Legal Secretary.

Then Congress said, “We have had this command in operation for one year and we are $918,000 over budget, we must cut back.”

So they laid off the night watchman.

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A Real Example

The United States Department of Energy

A Blueprint For Building A Monolithic “Forever” Department Of Waste

Back in April 2012 I wrote an article which included the following illustration of a very real government agency and its history of growth and “achievement”:

Does anybody remember the reason given for the establishment of the Department of Energy during the Carter Administration?  Bottom line is, we’ve spent several hundred billion dollars in support of an agency…. the reason for which not many who read this can remember!

The Department of Energy was instituted on 8/04/1977,  TO LESSEN OUR DEPENDENCE ON FOREIGN OIL.   Now it’s 2012 —- 35 years later —- and the budget for this “necessary” department is $24.2 Billion a year.  It has 16,000 Federal Employees and approximately 100,000 contract employees and look at the job it has done!  35 years ago 30% of our oil consumption was foreign imports.  Today 70% of our oil consumption is foreign imports…..  Great job!   Good old Federal bureaucracy.  (And we could supply all our oil needs from the USA) ……   Update: for 2022 the Department of Energy budget has grown to $44.988 Billion Dollars and we are again importing oil though we have been, for a short time and could again be energy independent if the government would get out of the way.

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Many other examples of wasteful government spending which grew out of the pregnant thoughts of some bureaucrat to solve real or imaginary problems could be given.  For a humorous look at similar non-problem solutions you might want to  read about California’s Paperwork Reduction Department which I dreamed up back in 2015.  Just type Paperwork Reduction in the search box (left column).  While the illustration is intentionally “over the top” the principal can be seen at work in many government agencies at all levels, especially State and Federal.

Here is one to think about:  Why do we need a $637.7 Billion Dollar Federal Department of Education?  Education should be a State function.  There are so many others.

Bob Bandy – February 2023

IN THE NEWS:  GOVERNMENT HAS RUN OUT OF BORROWING AUTHORITY

AND NEEDS TO RAISE THE DEBT CEILING – AGAIN

OUR GOVERNMENT REMINDS ME OF A POORLY RUN CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE

With the nations debt having surpassed 31.5 Trillion Dollars the Administration is demanding that Congress raise the debt ceiling “again”.  Like demanding that VISA raise the limit on your credit card after your interest payments on your current VISA balance exceed your ability to pay even the interest on the debt you already have.  Similarly, government is unable to pay current interest rates on the nations debt and uses “smoke and mirrors” to say they are paying a reduced rate.

Looking at our 2023 current annual Federal Budget shows that 23 percent of the $1.7 Trillion Dollar budget is going to pay Social Security Benefits.  That’s $391 Billion Dollars.  But wait……  Social Security was founded as a sort of IRA (Individual Retirement Account) funded by your working career payments, along with employer contributions into a Government “protected” Trust Account which would earn interest over the years and provide you with an income on retirement.  So what happened?

Nearly Four Years Ago I Wrote The Following Article 

True Then – True Now

SOCIAL (IN)SECURITY PONZI SCHEME

GIVING YOUR MONEY TO CONGRESS TO INVEST

IS LIKE GIVING WHISKEY AND CAR KEYS TO A TEENAGER

When I was young and gullible I once believed the Social Security Administration maintained an investment account in my name into which they put my, and my employers Social Security contributions and then added interest during my working career.

This was the BIG LIE we were all led to believe.

What was really happening was all this money was being stolen by Congress to spend as they saw fit and they were replacing the money in the Social Security “Ledger” with worthless I.O.U.’s to be paid out on a supposedly “Pay As You Go” basis from “future” anticipated revenues.  This is the textbook definition of a Ponzi Scheme which they would put us in jail for if we put in practice on others.

The system is structurally Bankrupt and “benefits” (more later) are being paid through a “smoke and mirrors” accounting trick using borrowed deficit spending.  

Instead of an “investment account” maintained in our name, Congress now calls the Social Security “payback” an Entitlement Program as if it was like a Welfare Program.

HEY CONGRESS!  This was money taken out of our checks, at gunpoint when needed, and put into an account supposedly in our name and into which an equal share was paid by our employers – money they could have given to us in salary if it was not being confiscated by the Federal Government.

It is not like these elected “Clowns, Criminals and Lunatics” don’t know what an Actuarial Table is.  They do.  But, they would prefer to treat us all as if we are stupid and not aware of their little “slight of hand” maneuvers with OUR money.

At the present time the Government withholds (confiscates) 6.2% of your gross paycheck for Social Security AND your employer pays to them an additional amount equal to 6.2% of your gross pay.  There are some “thresholds” (upper and lower) on this but for the vast majority of us these numbers apply.  Don’t forget that if your employer was not required to pay this to the Government, they could give it to you in salary.  That totals 12.4%.

Just for fun I took an Actuarial Table (readily available on line – Google) and did a sample based on an average 40 year working career – that is like going to work at 25 years old and retiring at 65 years old.  Some folks make more and some folks make less but for this example I assumed an average annual salary of $50,000 with no increases over the 40 year period.  That would be an average monthly income of $4,166 (and some change).  12.4% of  $4,166 is $516 (rounded down).  If you “plug in” $516 into the Actuarial Table for the first month and then add that amount to your account monthly over a 40 year period  at 4% interest (chump change to a competent Investment Firm) you will end up at the end of your 40 year period with…..  are you ready….. $614,474.00  

But don’t trust me.  Run you own numbers.  At 5% interest that number jumps  to $794,504.00.

You could easily live out the rest of your years when you retire with a nice income and leave the rest to your family or favorite charity.

HELLO CONGRESS!  Where’s my money.

Something to think about.

Bob Bandy – Right Again 🙂 January 2023

ideal.com

DIVERSITY – EQUITY – INCLUSION

This is the “battle cry” of the “Woke” crowd and on the surface these words sound harmless, even desirable.  I certainly enjoy diversity in my relationships with others.  I want everyone to have equity in their opportunity to succeed.  I am enriched by the inclusion of family, friends, co-workers and neighbors with diverse backgrounds, interests and ideas. 

DIVERSITY – INCLUSION

The “problem” I find with the “Woke” generation is in their application of these ideals.  I think most of us can see the similarities in “Diversity” and “Inclusion”.  In many ways two sides of the same coin.  To demonstrate:  discussions of political and religious views often includes both inclusion and diversity.  For example: The Christian faith includes a diversity of churches: Catholic, Baptist, Lutheran, etc..  However, in the “Woke Culture”  if a conservative or religious speaker wants to make a presentation at say, Harvard or Cornell University, two bastions of “Woke-ness”. They are shouted off stage, often pummeled with debris, even chased off campus.  In doing this we see the “Woke” crowd demonstrating their hypocrisy to a high degree.  Ideas that do not agree with theirs are not included in their definition of “Diversity” and “Inclusion”.  Religious Faith and Conservative Values are not in their lexicon.  At one time our Colleges were considered Citadels of  “Free Speech”.  No more!

On another front, in their demands for “Diversity” and “Inclusion” the more militant elements of the “Woke” LGBTQ culture are stealing the innocence of our children and the joys of their childhood. In the process these militant “Woke true believers” pursue their own agenda to recruit these young ones into a sexual lifestyle of “Gender Fluid”, choices, that as children, they are unprepared to make.  The  “Wokies” are also encouraging pubescent young men to “choose to become” (??) “Transgender” so they can share showers and locker rooms with young girls and then compete unfairly with them in athletic competition. This, and the encouragement of so called “Drag Queens” performing suggestively in front of young children, are all elements of the destructive path these militants are on in their attempt to indoctrinate the most innocent of our youth.

EQUITY

I am a believer in true equity and define it as equality of opportunity.  Just to be clear.  Equal opportunity is already the law in America.  The “Woke” crowd are demanding something else.  They want equity as defined by equality of outcomes.  You cannot legislate “equal outcomes” that will work.  Below is a short piece I shared some time ago about a professor who wanted to teach his students about equal outcomes.  This is followed by an article I wrote some nine years ago about  our government “Fixing Income Inequality”. 

THE PROFESSOR

“A group of students go to college.  Some students work hard,  study diligently and get all A’s & B’s.  Other students party, skip classes, do not study, attend marches and protests for “causes” and get D’s & F’s.  Their Professor says that in order to be “fair” to all students he has decided to “tax” the hard working students A’s & B’s  and share those grades with the lazy students who got the D’s & F’s.  In this way all students can average out at a “C” grade.    Some of the students are going to love this idea and others will likely hate it.  Can you guess which ones will love it?” 

FIXING INCOME INEQUALITY

The government says it wants to “fix” the problem of unequal pay and income.  They say too few are paid too much (the evil rich) while too many are not paid enough (victims of the rich).  The goal of the government is to equalize pay for all citizens.

Based on the governments track record of “fixing” things like the War on Poverty, our Public Education System, the Postal Service, Amtrak, and the growing National Debt, I am not sure we want them to try to “fix” income equality.  Or anything else.

I have a vision of what a likely government “fix” will look like.

First they will establish what is a reasonable amount for everyone to be paid. For sake of  this discussion lets say they decide on $60,000 a year.  That would be $5,000 a month.

Here is a plan that I am sure would appeal to every bureaucrats heart.  All residents of the United States of working age (18?) would receive a “salary” of $5,000 per month from the government who would function as the payroll department for all employers.  A “single payer” system under complete control of the government and IRS.   We could all become cogs in the wheel of the Proletariat masses.

Don’t worry, if you like your current job, you can keep it.  That’s a promise.

Your education does not matter.  Your age does not matter.  Race, religion, political party, type of work, skill level, work ethic, level of responsibility, or experience. None of these matter.  Unions could be eliminated, you wouldn’t need them.  No merit or performance pay, everybody gets paid the same.  Movie stars, Presidents, Barbers, Plumbers, Soldiers, Dog Catchers, Burger Flippers, Brain Surgeons, etc.

Visualize a Baseball Team under this system.  The owners, the managers, star players, beginning players,  bat boys, groundskeepers, peanut vendors, everybody gets exactly the same pay.

As desirable as this sounds in providing equal pay for all of us it would have the added benefit that the IRS could withhold their “fair share” before we see our paycheck with no need for us to ever file an annual return.  Who could possibly object to such a fair and equitable solution?   Consider this,  we would all get paid the same no matter how lousy a job we do.  Just like members of Congress.

If every citizen received the same amount of pay every month, do you think we would all have the same bank account at the end of the year?  Or would some have a fat bank account, another a new car and still another a giant hangover?

Perhaps government’s next task is to require equal outcomes for all of us?  It should be easy.  A plan to devolve all of us to the lowest common denominator.  Call it government approved cookie cutter equality.

An American melting pot filled with glassy eyed, average room temperature IQ automatons.

OPPORTUNITY CREATES WEALTH – EQUITY CREATES POVERTY

Bob Bandy – January 2023

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IF YOU CAN DESTROY FAITH AND THE FAMILY YOU CAN DESTROY A NATION

I am an older citizen.  Born just before Pearl Harbor and America’s entry into World War II.  Have seen my country under threat many times.  Wars, Pestilence, Natural Disasters and more. Never have I seen a threat more insidious than the one shaking the very foundations of our nation right now.  It is invading our schools, our churches, our families and our very government.

The odd thing is that this threat is not based on the armies of a foreign enemy or any cause based in science.  It is based on an idea that has become almost a religion in its fervor.  It is best called Wokeism and many consider it the new religion of the west. If you Google it you will find it defined as follows: “Wokeism is a religion. Although it has not been organized into any formal religious structure, it has all the functions of religious doctrine. It has a unique epistemology (theory of knowledge), an evaluation of the human condition, and a redemption narrative.”

The main tenet of this new faith seems to rest in the belief that gender is a fluid thing and you can be any of some 100 different genders on any given day and change your gender at will.  There is no science behind this.  There is no “Gender Fluid” or “Transgender” DNA.  If a person is crushed beyond recognition a scientist or a medical professional can run a test and tell if the deceased was a male or a female.  If you research “Transgender” you will find it medically defined as a “Dysphoria”: “A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth.” In simple “country boy” terms it is defined as an “I wannabe” someone other than who I am.  No insult intended.

Wokeism could easily be described as a sort of infectious insanity.  Some might consider it almost laughable if it were not so dangerous and damaging.

Radical Woke elements within the LGBTQ community have infiltrated our schools and seek to groom and introduce grade school children into the “Gender Fluid” lifestyle while so-called “Drag Queens”; men dressed in women’s underwear and lingerie dance provocatively in front of our children in libraries and churches in an effort to sexualize them.  In my opinion this is a crime and an abomination.

We are in the process of destroying the pillars of civil society in pursuit of this insane WOKE doctrine.

It has infected our schools, including grade schools and is causing great damage to even young children who are being indoctrinated and exposed to, even subjected to, pharmacological as well as surgical disfiguring procedures in pursuit of “sex-change”.   It has become a cancer in our churches, military, corporations, medical institutions, even our government.  It must be stopped and excised from our culture before the damage becomes irreconcilable and we all find ourselves living in some kind of “Alice In Wonderland” fantasy world and slaves to a form of group insanity within our own land.

Disagree if you want.  Hate me if you want.  I stand by what I have written here.  Share if you dare.

Bob Bandy – January 2023

Senator Mitch McConnell

With RINO Mitch McConnell at the head of the Republican Party in the Senate, Conservative Republicans don’t need any other enemies.  

My last two postings have been a bit longer than usual and if I was so inclined, I could write a book on so-called Republican Mitch McConnell’s poor record as a Republican Senator and Minority Leader in the Senate.  However, I will keep this posting to only two recent examples of his Republican In Name Only antics which have cost Conservative, Constitutional Republicans a clear voice in the management of our nation.

1.

McConnell sent companion RINO Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski, who was running against another Republican for the senate seat in Alaska, 7.4 million dollars in Republican campaign funds controlled by McConnell and the Senate Leadership Fund (SLF), keep in mind the Alaska race was going to be won by a Republican no matter who won the election.

He did this because McConnell hates Donald Trump who supported Murkowski Republican opponent Kelly Tshibaka.  His spiteful action by wasting Senate Leadership Funds on the Alaska race while reducing or cancelling campaign funds for races in Nevada by Republican challenger Adam Laxalt and, in Arizona by Republican Challenger Blake Masters, both close  races currently held by Democrats.  His decision and action without question cost the Republicans control of the Senate.  McConnell’s actions were taken simply to spite Donald Trump, who supported both candidates Laxalt and Masters.  Mitch McConnell put his personal feelings ahead of the Party’s goals.

2.

McConnell also orchestrated enough fellow RINO Republican votes to pass the Democrats end of term catastrophic 1.7 Trillion Dollar budget.  Money we don’t have and will end up being printed by the Federal Reserve causing ever more inflation.  This budget contains, among other wasteful “pork barrel” spending some 47 Billion Dollars to help the Ukraine defend its borders from a Russian invasion while it SPECIFICALLY PROHIBITS spending even One Dollar to defend the Southern Border of the United States from the current Joe Biden/George Soros “Southern Border Invasion Open” with millions of participants from not only the Southern Hemisphere, but from around the world, and in the process enriching the Drug Cartels in Mexico while overwhelming cities and states along the U.S./Mexico border.

Do a little of your own research and you will find Mitch McConnell is not just a Republican In Name Only (RINO) but a traitor to the principals of sound government and fiscal responsibility.  He is all about trying to build a legacy of power and dictatorial control for himself.  He brings shame on the office he holds.  Truly, he sleeps with the enemy.

Bob Bandy – December 2022

MAN LOSES VOLUNTEER POSITION FOR SAYING MEN AND WOMEN ARE DIFFERENT

From the ALLIANCE DEFENDING FREEDOM Website Nov. 28, 2022

More and more Americans are learning that some government officials hold no respect for their rights to free speech or religious freedom.  Take what happened to Dr. Andrew Fox. 

Dr. Fox was fired from his position as a volunteer fire chaplain for expressing his commonsense view, held by millions of Americans, that there are biological differences between men and women.  

After serving as the Austin (TX) Fire Department’s chaplain for eight years, Dr. Fox was penalized by the Fire Department chiefs for opinions he expressed on his personal blog, during his own time.

They tried to make him recant his beliefs and apologize for holding views contrary to theirs. But Dr. Fox stood firm in his faith, and he refused to recant his beliefs. The City of Austin punished Dr. Fox by removing him from the fire department.

Plain and simple, government officials canceled Dr. Fox for having views different from their own.

Alliance Defending Freedom has filed a federal lawsuit against the City of Austin on his behalf.

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“ALL THAT IS REQUIRED FOR EVIL TO TRIUMPH IS FOR GOOD MEN TO DO NOTHING.“

Quote often credited to Edmund Burke

THE ABOVE INDIVIDUAL WAS “CANCELLED”/FIRED FROM HIS VOLUNTEER POSITIION BECAUSE HE BELIEVES AND STATED THAT THERE IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MEN AND WOMEN –  THIS IS WOKE CULTURE GONE MAD

IT IS ALSO NOTHING LESS THAN INSANE

Cancel Culture – Wikipedia definition:  Cancel culture or call-out culture is a phrase contemporary to the late 2010s and early 2020s used to refer to a form of ostracism in which someone is thrust out of social or professional circles – whether it be online, on social media, or in person. Those subject to this ostracism are said to have been cancelled.

In other words the “Cancelled” individual has no right to exist, live or work in the accepted, now defined as “Woke” culture.  In the popular culture they are considered a nonperson or cultural out-cast.

A nonperson is a citizen or a member of a group who lacks, loses, or is forcibly denied social or legal status, especially basic human rights, or who effectively ceases to have a record of their existence within a society (damnatio memoriae),

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This is a good definition of the Borg culture portrayed in the old Star Trek Series.

In the Borg, and apparently Woke culture, you are expected to parrot what you are told, shut up and obey.  No independent thought is allowed.  Woke indoctrination is on a path to try to destroy our American culture which includes freedom of speech, thought and ideas.  Even obvious conclusions like men are different than women are not allowed and if expressed can make you a “nonperson” in Woke society.  They can, with government approval, fire you from your job and take away your livelihood if you disagree with their insane beliefs and are bold enough to say so.

Sadly, this program to indoctrinate even our children is supported, even directed at the highest levels in our government.  One glaring example is the Federal Department of Education – headed by Secretary Miguel Cardona working in close coordination with the head of American Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten.  They are determined to groom even grade school children in the poison that is Critical Race Theory as well as sexualizing them in the world of the radical elements of the LGBTQ culture and early age Transgender identification and conversion by chemical, pharmaceutical, even surgical means.

I strongly feel that we need to “Cancel” the Woke culture which has become a cancer on our American way of life.

JUST SAY NO!  I REFUSE TO BE CANCELLED BY YOUR NON-SCIENTIFIC, NON-BIOLOGICAL CULTURAL SUICIDE.

Would it be redundant to say we can Cancel “Cancel Culture”?   Or is it better to just  refuse to participate?  

For more on this subject please read: 

www.stoppullingthewagon.com/protecting-the-most-vulnerable/

or: copy and paste –  protecting the most vulnerable – in the search box

which I posted back on Oct. 5th.  Our children are our most vulnerable and treasured heritage.

ARE YOU SCARED YET?

It wasn’t that long ago that if a man dressed up in women’s underwear and danced provocatively in front of little children, we put them in jail as pedophiles.  Today, “they” are trying to tell us that it is just introducing these children to the variety of acceptable lifestyles in our Woke culture.  In other words, this form of perversion is now to be considered the “norm”.

If you find yourself as concerned as I am about the direction of our country, please share this with family, friends and neighbors.

Bob Bandy – December 2022