Author: admin

 
THIS IS GOING AROUND CYBER SPACE TODAY. I DON’T KNOW WHO WROTE IT BUT IT IS WORTH READING AND PUTS A LOT OF THINGS IN THEIR PROPER PERSPECTIVE:

Life is not a fairy tale. If you lose your shoe at midnight, you’re drunk.
 
If women are upset at Trump’s naughty words, who in the hell bought 80 million copies of 50 Shades of Gray?
 
Jim Comey answered, “I don’t know,” “I don’t recall,” and “I don’t remember” 236 times while under oath. 

But he remembered enough to write a book.
 
President Trump should nominate Hillary Clinton for the next opening on the supreme court. Then he can finally get her investigated.
 
Not one feminist has defended Sarah Sanders. It seems women’s rights only matter if those women are liberal.
 
No Border Walls. No voter ID laws. You figured it out yet?
 
Chelsea Clinton got out of college and got a job at NBC that paid $900,000 per year. Her mom flies around the country speaking out about white privilege.
 
SOCIALISM: An idea that is so good that it has to be mandatory. Bernie Sanders walks into a bar and yells… “Free drinks for everyone!” looks around and says “Who’s buying?”
 
What is the difference between an Illegal immigrant and E.T.? E.T. learned to speak English and went home.
 
And just like that they went from being against foreign interference in our elections to allowing non-citizens to vote in our elections.
 
Watching the left come up with schemes to “catch Trump” is like watching Wile E. Coyote trying to catch Road Runner.
 
President Trump’s wall cost less than the Obamacare website alone. Let that sink in, America.
 
We are one election away from open borders, socialism, gun confiscation, and full term abortion nationally. We are fighting evil.
 
They sent more troops and armament to arrest Roger Stone than they sent to defend Benghazi.
 
60 years ago, Venezuela was 4th on the world economic freedom index. Today, they are 179th and their citizens are dying of starvation. In only 10 years, Venezuela was destroyed by democratic socialism.
 
Russia donated $0.00 to the Trump campaign. Russia donated $145,600,000 to the Clinton Foundation. But Trump was the one investigated!
 
Nancy Pelosi invited illegal aliens to the State of the Union. President Trump Invited victims of illegal aliens to the State of the Union. Let that sink in.
 
A socialist is basically a communist who doesn’t have the power to take everything from their citizens at gunpoint … Yet!
 
How do you walk 3,000 miles across Mexico without food or support and show up at our border 100 pounds overweight and with a cellphone?
 
Alexandria Ocasio Cortez wants to ban cars, ban planes, give out universal income and thinks socialism works. She calls Donald Trump crazy.
 
Bill Clinton paid $850,000 to Paula Jones To get her to go away. I don’t remember the FBI raiding his lawyer’s office.
 
I wake up every day and I am grateful that Hillary Clinton is not the President of the United States of America.
 
The same media that told me Hillary Clinton had a 95% chance of winning now tells me Trump’s approval 

ratings are low.
 
“The problem with socialism is that sooner or later you run out of other people’s money.”— Margaret Thatcher
 
Maxine Waters opposes voter ID laws; She thinks that they are racist. You need to have a photo ID to attend her town hall meetings.
 

Trump — They’re not after me. They’re after you. I’m just in their way

Marv Covault

Too often we say, “That’ s just politicians spouting off” when they say something outrageously off-track or untrue. Why should they get a pass? Why don’t we hold them accountable to a higher standard?

Cases in point:

For the past two years democrat/liberal/progressive/socialist leaders and candidates have insisted, “There is no crisis on the border.” They have since transitioned to, “The crisis on the border has been manufactured by Trump.” However, the numbers tell the truth: 63,624 UNACCOMPANIED ALIEN CHILDREN so far this year (more than all of FY 18) and total apprehensions is 780,000 so far this year vs 521,000 for all of last year. Yes, the facilities are overcrowded and unsatisfactory but it is not a “concentration camp” as alleged by the vocal left. Where is the intellectual honesty when every senior Home Land Security and Border Patrol chain of command leader has been begging congress for funds to improve conditions.

Alexandria Ocasio Cortez lit up the media with her pronouncement that, “Women at a border facility are being forced to drink out of toilets.” While the nation is left with that mental image, one network finally showed a picture of what AOC actually saw during her border tour. Yes, it was a toilet but the water tank on the back is extended upward to include a drinking fountain on the top. Referring to the hundreds of honest, hard-working, compassionate Border Patrol officers as “concentration camp guards” is the ultimate insult. While the Border Patrol concentrates their efforts every day to care for thousands of illegal immigrants in facilities designed for hundreds, AOC goes back to Washington and votes AGAINST funding for improved border facilities.

The democrats will not say the words “amnesty for all” or “open borders” but all of their rhetoric and actions point directly to that intent. Current studies suggest that at least 150 million adults world-wide want to immigrate to the US. With amnesty and open borders they would come and those numbers would overwhelm our nation’s welfare, medical and educational systems and destroy America. The democrats are intelligent enough to understand the ramifications of amnesty and open borders yet they persist in telling us that it is the “moral” thing to do. Destroy America to make a moral point? Is that intellectually honest?

The democrat presidential candidates conveniently depart from the truth when they tell us, “The Trump economy is only benefiting the wealthy while minorities are left behind and the middle class is suffering.” The reality is that wages are rising at the fastest rate in a decade for lower-skilled workers and unemployment among less-educated Americans and minorities is near a record low. Nearly one million more Black Americans and two million more Hispanics are employed than when Obama left office and minorities account for more than half of all new jobs created under the Trump presidency. Yet I do not see the media fact checking this daily barrage of misinformation by the candidates.

The democrats like to remind us that, “we are a nation of laws.” Yet, when federal judges issue approximately 1 million FINAL DEPORTATION ORDERS and expect them to be executed the democrats go crazy. Speaker Pelosi held a news conference to instruct illegals on how to avoid being taken into custody. ICE, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, is the federal law enforcement agency responsible for executing the judges’ orders. Democrat candidates and political leaders call for the elimination of ICE. Do they honestly believe ICE is a, “menace to society?”

Affordable government funded Medicare for all is what many of the democrats are telling us we need. But, have they done the math? Currently, the total annual federal tax revenue is around $3.5 trillion, which is about the same amount government-funded Medicare for all is estimated to cost per year. Do they believe we are so stupid they can get away with these kinds of promises?

“The Trump tax cut was just a tax cut for the rich”, they say. Actually, according to the joint Tax Policy Center, Brookings Institute and the Urban Institute, Americans in the top 20 percent paid an estimated 87 percent of income taxes for 2018. This was UP from 84 percent in 2017 which means that the Trump tax cuts actually made the tax code more progressive. We will hear that lie from the candidates hundreds of times leading up to the November, 2020 elections.

The point of these few observations is to offer the question, what has happened to intellectual honesty and common sense? What has taken candidates to the point of political desperation that those seeking office feel obliged to offer up solutions that are unworkable, beyond unreasonable and cannot be paid for?

Marv Covault

Calling someone a coward is an ugly thing to do.  I do not take the subject lightly and do not do so without due consideration of the facts surrounding his service as a Special Prosecutor over the past two years. 

His mission was straight forward: 

One, did Candidate Trump collude with the Russians to gain an advantage resulting in his election as president of the United States in 2016?

Two, has President Trump misused his power and obstructed justice?

I am not implying the task was easy but it is important that the mission statement be clean, clear and unambiguous.  It is.  

Mueller accepted the challenge and our country waited impatiently for almost two years for the following statements:

Evidence shows that Candidate Trump did (or did not) collude with the Russians during the 2016 Presidential election campaign. 

There is sufficient evidence to conclude that President Trump has (or has not) obstructed justice. 

Mueller did OK on the first requirement but he punted on the second.  He accomplished 50% of what he was explicitly tasked to do.  In my up-bringing, a 50% grade is an “F”, as in failure.

Why did he fail?  Was it because he lacked the resources?  It does not seem so.

 Time: Unlimited.

 Budget:  Over $30 million spent.

Manpower: He was provided a huge, experienced, hand-picked staff of 19 lawyers and at least 40 investigators; over 200,000 manhours of work.

 Evidence: Over a million documents provided and reviewed.

Authority: He issued over 2800 subpoenas, executed 500 search warrants, issued 230 orders for communications records, requested evidence from 13 foreign governments and interviewed approximately 500 witnesses.

The bottom-line question from this massive, exhaustive effort is, how could there possibly be any additional evidence to consider? Answer, there probably isn’t any.

During the 22 months Bob Mueller led the effort, we did not hear a word from him and that was as it should be.  And all the while we were assured by most Republicans and Democrats alike and by the media that Mueller is a good man. He is fair and impartial.  He will do a good job.  He has vast experience and his reputation is impeccable.

He may be some of those but the bottom line is, he is a coward.  When it came time to do the nation’s bidding, to stand up as a patriot, to act professionally, to answer the two questions that hung over the nation and the Trump administration for two long agonizing years, when all was said and done Mueller folded under the pressure.  He let us all down. 

In the days that have followed the release of the report, we have all learned that under a Justice Department memorandum a sitting president cannot be indicted while in office as it would interfere with a chief executive’s constitutional responsibilities. 

That was the crutch that Mueller leaned on.  Why, he rhetorically asked us, should I answer the question as to whether the president obstructed justice when charging the president with a crime was not an option we could consider?

The answer, Bob, is that if you could have found one example of obstruction and put it in your report the process would have, most certainly, moved directly to impeachment.  Look at your mission statement!!

Prosecutors, all prosecutors, do one of two things.  One, they conclude there is sufficient evidence to charge a person with having committed a crime; or, two, they conclude there is insufficient evidence to charge a person.  That’s it.  All he had to do was pick one and say it. 

He certainly had enough resources to reach a conclusion one way or the other.  But he took the coward’s way out; over to you Congress, you sort it out.  As if the amateur-hour congressional investigative committees can devote a fraction of the effort, expertise and time that Mueller had at his fingertips for 22 months.

So, where does that leave us?  It leaves the nation divided on the critical question of obstruction. It leaves the Trump Administration with a cloud hanging over it. It leaves the Congress hopelessly divided on impeachment. It gives the congress license to “investigate” ad-nauseum.

Mueller’s words, “If we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so. We did not, however, make a determination as to whether the president did commit a crime.” What a pile of crap.  You had all the recourses one could possibly hope for and you can either cite an example of obstruction or you can’t.  Which is it?

Thanks for nothing Bob, you have just done our great nation a grievous disservice.

 Lieutenant General, US Army retired, Marvin L. Covault is the author of Vision to Execution, a book for leaders

I have a guest blogger today, my older brother Jerry.  Background: He spent his entire professional life with the US Forest Service, mostly leading huge national forests in Colorado and Montana. After “retiring” he taught in the Forestry Department at the University of Montana and has been a prolific author and thinker about trees, plants, air, water and dirt. He is also a sought-after national expert on forest fires, when/where/why/how to fight them.

The following is designed to scare the hell out of you as you think about the future for your grandkids (my words, not his).  I do recall a few decades ago reading a proclamation that most future wars will be fought over water rights.  Maybe the future is right around the corner. 

400 Generations?  Think About It.

by Jerry Covault

May 2019

People’s economic systems and the Earth:

The previous economic system on the North American Continent, the hunter-gather economy, managed the natural resources; water, air, soil, plants and animals to sustain the people’s way-of-life for 10,000 years.  The natural resources this economic system left in place have been the driving source for the economic system that followed, that system is capitalism.

In ten generations, 245 years, capitalism, has been startlingly efficient in converting natural resources to military strength, a nation-wide infrastructure, industry, energy production and personal comforts for people.  The cost has been terrible with possible irreversible damage to the basic natural resources of the continent; water, soil, air, plants, animals and minerals.  The damage to the resources is so severe that the Earth may not be able to sustain the way people are living now. Many years ago, I read an article that said if China reached the standard-of-living of the US, it would take the resources of six Earths to support the people.  That may or may not be true, but it is worth thinking about. 

Capitalism, our present, successful, power producing economic system was defined by Adam Smith in his 1776 book, The Wealth of Nations.  Adam Smith, as I understand it, identified the ideas of division of labor, productivity and free markets.    Under these descriptions, and individual can do whatever he or she wants and if the goods or services the individual produces are in demand by others, the “market place” will set the price for those goods or services.  The ideas were revolutionary. They raised the material wealth and comfort of those who successfully worked the system.  This Capitalism has become so ingrained in American culture that we cannot draw a line between ourselves as individuals, the economy, and our government. 

It makes sense that American Democracy and Capitalism are inseparable by most of us, they came to the world in the same year, 1776.  Democracy and capitalism have grown-up together on the same continent, shaping the values and understanding of a nation of people, Americans. 

About Capitalism:

Adam Smith basically said when every person has the right to do what is best for him or herself, there will be more goods and services for everyone.  And for 245 years it has worked out that way. 

However, as I understand Smith’s ideas, he failed to consider and deal with two critical factors that are presenting themselves in the 21st century.  Those two factors are; limited natural resources, and human greed.  The Earth’s air is filling with pollutants that are changing climate and making it unhealthy to breath.  Water supplies are less than what are needed and becoming more polluted throughout the Earth.  Soil, that grows our food, is polluted with fertilizers, insecticides, herbicides and eroded of its texture throughout the Earth.  The United Nations tells us more than a million living species on Earth are facing extinction and the oceans are becoming polluted and less supportive of a variety of life. Capitalism has been the vehicle for tremendous national power and comfort for citizens and it is painfully evident that it has caused so much damage to the Earth that the life-style it has enabled is unsustainable. 

Increasing technology produced by the capitalistic system cannot offsets lack of water, atmospheric pollution, soil depletion, extinct species of plants and animals and other irreversible impacts on basic Earth resources.

Morality of it all:

Capitalism is amoral, it has no moral compass, whatever an individual (person or company) can do to make money is ok with capitalism.  Government is the institution that has the authority and responsibility to determine what is right, legal and moral within a society.  We are well aware of laws and regulations that limit personal and corporate behavior in relationship with other people or companies. These laws and regulations are boundaries to capitalism’s behavior.  However, governments have established very few laws that address respectful treatment and rights for non-human life.  There are few laws limiting how non-human life and natural resources (such as air and water) can be used, abused, or sustained.  This is because these non-human lives and inarticulate resources do not have “standing” in the human legal systems.  As a result, the health of Earth is threatened with more than one million living species in danger of extinction, Earth’s diseases are getting worse and they are caused by people.

There needs to be changes, but change can only occur if we people care about future people and the Earth as much or more than we care about NOW.

The Economics profession

Capitalism will not change itself.  The gatekeepers of the economy, economists, have been co-opted by the lords of industry and banking.  Economists are trained and committed to studying the minutia of economies to provide information that will benefit those with enough wealth to manipulate the entire economy to their advantage.  Government economists are often complicit in these efforts to concentrate wealth. The profession should be developing economic strategies that will lead to long term sustainability of the basic earth resources and sustainability of human societies that will provide health, comfort and peace with all life on Earth.  But they’re not interested in the next century, their efforts are toward economic growth and the next quarter’s profit, or loss.  Economists don’t seem to know that NOTHING GROWS FOREVER, and certainly not an economy.  Long-term (a century plus) thinking and planning needs to be incorporated into every economic strategy, but economists are not leading that way.

Governments:

Democratic government will not approach the problem of limited natural resources.  Government’s primary responsibility is to the security of the citizenry:  military security; security from crime, violent crime and monetary and white-collar crime; security of safe food and medicine.  Governments do not look generations ahead, in a democracy, the people’s representatives are elected for short terms (2 to 6 years at a time) and their interests do not extend beyond their term. 

Governments have the power, and responsibility, to limit the use and abuse of all-natural resources so that future generations will be sustained.  But they won’t.  Whether they are, democracies, autocracy, dictatorship, theocracies, socialist or whatever, they will do what is most beneficial to individuals in power, in the short-term. 

Governments have the power to limit the amount of pollutants in the air, water, soil and oceans, the destruction of plants (forests) and animals, but they won’t because, at this time, we people are not demanding it.  

A way toward sustainability:

Democracy is the form of government that can make changes with the least amount of domestic violence.   The formula for change is, Public Awareness, followed by Public Education, followed by Public Voting.   With the exception of America’s Civil War, this formula has been the process for great civil changes in national values, policies and direction in America.

As far as I can see, there are three institutions in our culture that have a chance to focus public attention on the long-term imperatives that we must live within to protect the productivity of the Earth’s natural resources,

These institutions are:  our education system, the news media, and the entertainment industry.  These three institutions have the potential to raise public awareness of the urgency of addressing the Earth’s illnesses, and educate the public about the issues, and to show what is at stake.  When the public is committed to a course of corrective action, the votes for change will be there and politicians in a Democracy will act on behalf of the people and the Earth as well as their own interests. 

A vote is a statement of hope.  This strategy is a long-shot, but possibly the only one our grandchildren and beyond have for a peaceful and comfortable life on Earth.  

Who’s going to do it and why?

Only the United States can move the world to help heal the Earth, because:

• The US is a Democracy and can and will respond to public pressure, i.e. votes.
• The US can change, no other country in history or present has been able to change as drastically and as rapidly as the US has demonstrated.
• The US has strong institutions served by competent and honest bureaucracies.
• The US has such a strong economy it can influence world-wide policies through rewards, sanctions, and other non-military means.

Why?  Because, if actions are not taken to heal the Earth, generations, beginning with the Millennials, will begin to face issues the world is now seeing in Yemen.  War over resources, food insecurity and mass starvation.  The United States will not be insulated from these issues as resources become more scarce throughout the world.

We need to get our priorities right and to that end, we must recognize that economic growth is not the answer to a sustainable future.  We must instead, insist that our government representatives consider the Earth’s ecology with as much or more urgency as they consider our economy.

And there you have it from my big brother, Jerry.  A very thoughtful piece.  And if you liked this article, there is a lot more.  A couple years ago he published a book, FORESTS AND PEOPLE.  If you are at all interested in world history and some answers to the questions, (why is the earth the way it is today and what were the factors that caused it to be this way?) then I’m sure you will enjoy his book, I certainly did and so did my wife.  It is down-to-earth (no pun intended) interesting reading with a lot of personal anecdotes about the wonders of nature. 

Marv Covault 

B

April 25^th, Joe Biden threw his hat in the ring and became the 20^th democratic candidate for president. 

HERE ARE BIDEN’S THOUGHTS SEVERAL MONTHS AGO:

OK, that’s it, I am going to run for president again but I believe it will be best if I just let the anticipation and will-he/won’t-he debate raise expectations for a few months.  I’ll let all the newbies jump in early and get a sense of what they are promising.  Sometime next April seems to be about the right time to declare. 

But rather than waste time, I might as well work on the first draft of my coming-out speech.  And since I was this country’s number two guy for eight years, there has to be a lot I can talk about. 

I COULD BEGIN WITH THE ECONOMY:

As I recall, we struggled the whole eight years to get to a 2% GDP growth.  But our economists were telling us 2% was the “new normal” and we had a campaign going to convince the American people of this. It seemed to be working. 

Manufacturing kept departing overseas but there didn’t seem to be any way to stop it. We were definitely moving towards a service economy.  What can I say good about that? Hmmm.

The economic stability of the middle class kept slipping downward but we were doing the best we could. 

The millions on food stamps set new highs every year but maybe I shouldn’t bring that up. 

The problem as I see it right now is this: unemployment is at all-time lows, wages are up, the GDP is over 3% growth, hundreds of thousands of new jobs are created every month, our “identity voting groups”, like women, black Americans, and Hispanics now have jobs, are making good money and coming off food stamps by the millions.

On second thought I don’t believe the folks out there really understand economics anyway so maybe I won’t bring that up on day one.  (however, I do need to make a note to myself to figure out how in the hell Trump did a total economic turnaround in his first year and maybe I can find a way for Barack and me to take credit for it. 

FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND FOREIGN POLICY: 

OK, here is familiar territory since before being VP I was chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs committee.

In retrospect, Barack’s 10-speech “apology tour” right out of the starting blocks may have set us back a little as all our allies and enemies were saying, “what is that all about; is the US with us or not?”

Our focus was on the Middle East.  We told everyone exactly when we were going to pull out of Iraq and by golly we did it.  I thought of it as our “cut and run” policy.  Kind of a catchy phrase but maybe not quite right for the coming out speech.  How could we possible have known that it would become the “GO” signal for ISIS?

Barack sent me to Iraq to put together a Status of Forces Agreement.  What a waste of time; I just sort of blew that one off.  Just because a Status of Forces Agreement has been the center piece for decades in our very successful relations with Germany, Japan and South Korea, that is no reason the think we needed one in Iraq. Or is it?

Barack and I were sure he hit just the right tone when he called ISIS, “The JV squad”.  How were we expected to know ISIS would grow, carve out a country, establish a government, collect taxes, sell oil to finance expansion into 40 countries and terrorize the world? 

We knew China was a key element in our foreign policy but were caught up a little short when Barack went to China and they would not provide steps to get off Air Force One.  Well, any way he crawled out the back end, had his meeting with (what’s his name) the Chinese leader and lectured him about humanitarian rights. 

The “red line” ultimatum we made over Assad’s use of chemical weapons against thousands of his own people, seemed really Presidential and a good idea.  I still don’t understand why all our allies made such a big deal out of the fact that Assad did it again and we did nothing.  What were we supposed to do, nuc em? 

As I recall we had a pretty cool relationship with the Saudi King; not sure how all that came about.

Our real focus was to cozy up with Iran at any cost, literally.  There was the $400 million in cash on pallets aboard what was to have been a secret middle-of-the-night unmarked airplane arrival. I thought we had that one nailed tight. If we hadn’t been caught the four American prisoners released the next day would have looked like the result of great White House diplomacy.  Oh well what’s done is done. 

Then someone leaked that Barack and I fixed up a deal for a $1.7 billion cash payment to Iran in a settlement of a decades-old arbitration claim.  Congress was a little upset because they had not been consulted but they got over it and the press didn’t hammer us too bad.  A bunch of republicans were complaining that we should not be giving billions in cash to the world’s number one state-sponsor of terrorism but we had to do something to keep them negotiating our nuclear agreement, even if there would eventually be American blood on that cash.

Ultimately, we got the Iran agreement and a lot of good press with it.  But it didn’t seem to Barack and me that we could risk sending it to Congress for ratification because the loop holes may actually allow Iran to build a nuc in 12 years.  But 12 years is a long way away.  Maybe I should just avoid that one; after all most people just don’t understand how to conduct foreign affairs. 

I believe the hands-off approach with North Korea was all we could do.  How were Barack and I to know that after they nearly completed their nuclear and long-range missile testing, the NK foreign minister would stand before the United Nations Assembly and say, “a North Korean strike against a major US city is inevitable”. 

Barack made a speech once about NATO nations not living up to their signed agreement to budget 2% of their GDP for defense while the US paid most of NATO funding.  It was a good speech, what else could we do?

Looking back, maybe I will save my foreign affairs accomplishment for later in the campaign.  Maybe I will get lucky and it won’t even come up. 

IMMIGRATION:

Open borders seemed like a good policy or at the very least catch-and-release.  Immigration has been at the heart of America since our founding.  What’s different today?  Maybe some drugs, gang members, fugitives, terrorists, sex slaves and cartel backing today but still it’s the American way.  I think.

I’m sure this will be an issue but maybe I shouldn’t lead with it. 

TRADE AGREEMENTS: 

 All the big ones, China, Europe, NAFTA, seemed to be moving along with no complaints from our trading partners.  I could see no reason for Barack and me to put that on the front burner.  There was the half-trillion-dollar annual trade deficit for the US but we didn’t seem to have any trouble borrowing the money to pay for it. 

But, there again, maybe I should not be the one to bring it up. I’ll let one of the newbie candidates open that can of worms.  

OUR SCANDAL-FREE ADMINISTRATION FOR EIGHT YEARS:

This may be my opener; we made sure the Executive Branch was squeaky clean and absolutely transparent.  

Most folks have forgotten that in 2013 the IRS revealed that it had selected over 400 conservative political groups for intensive scrutiny based on their names and political themes.  Anyway, I recall Barack issuing a statement that the IRS shouldn’t do that.  Let sleeping dogs lie.

The Justice Department program to give guns to the cartels seemed like a good idea.  It still might have worked if one of the guns had not been used to kill one of our agents.  Anyway, no one was supposed to know about the program. 

Also, I wish our Attorney General, Loretta Lynch, would have been a little more discrete when she met with Bill Clinton on the tarmac in Arizona at what was to have been a secret meeting.  The problem was that Bill and Hillary were, at the time, subjects in an FBI investigation.  Somehow not all Americans believed they just, “talked about our grandchildren.”   The mainstream media pretty much gave us a pass on that one also so not a big deal. 

The one that really galled me was on 5 July, 2016 when FBI Director, Comey, addressed the nation on the year-long investigation concerning Hillary’s unsecured server.  He spent about ten minutes telling us in great detail how many times she violated the US Code and published some of our highest classified information in the clear. Then he concluded she was not guilty.  Comey’s presentation was just too messy, unprofessional, and ill-timed because it was exactly when Barack was making speeches telling Americans “Hillary Clinton is the best qualified candidate for president in history.” 

That damned Comey, if he would have nailed Hillary like he should have, she would have been forced to quit her campaign, I would have swept into the Democratic Convention and been nominated.  I would be president today with Elizabeth Warren VP and wouldn’t have to go through all this again.  Barack should have fired Comey that very afternoon for stupidity if nothing else. 

Also, I’m thinking this campaign isn’t going to be much fun because I can’t be seen hugging all the pretty girls.  In this “me to” environment someone is likely to call me on it. 

That reminds me, I better think through that whole Clinton/Trump campaign thing in case the Mueller investigation doesn’t turn out the way we expect it to.  We certainly don’t want anyone looking too closely at why Trump got investigated.  But, not to worry, Mueller will come through for us.

Maybe we were not completely scandal free.  I have a few months to think about it. Also makes me wonder what Barack is actually going to put in his library. 

MILITARY READINESS:

It is always a positive to say good things about the military; greatest in the world, best trained fighting men and women, etc. Good stuff. 

I doubt that anyone will go back and look at the military readiness at the end of our eight years.  Is it a big deal that only three of the US Army’s 58 brigade combat teams were ready for combat?   The Navy’s fleet was the smallest in nearly 100 years.  Eighty percent of Marine aviation units did not have the minimum number of aircraft they need for training and basic operations.  The air force is the smallest and oldest it has ever been, each aircraft averaging 27 years old and less than half are prepared to conduct combat operations.

These statistics on the military readiness were somewhat understandable after the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the cold war 30 years ago.  But for this to happen while engaged in a global war on terrorism may be a hard sell.  I would hate for some young whipper snapper reporter to bring up those stats in the first few days.  I’ll just plan to make some military remarks later on. 

Another thing to think through is my age.  It is a fact that I will be a few decades older than most except Bernie during the initial part of the campaign.  I need some catchy statement……let me think……maybe something like, I will not make age an issue in this campaign.  I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponents’ youth and inexperience.  Sounds great, hmmm, and a little too familiar.  Maybe someone has already used that.  More work to do.

HEALTH CARE:

In almost every poll, health care is always one of the top three concerns of the American people.  I thought Barack and I did a good job of rolling out Obamacare with the hard sell that it would save the average family $2500 a year, allow you to keep your current health plan and keep you doctor.  In retrospect some of that may have been a little over-stated; well maybe a lot overstated.  In fact, none of it actually happened and health care costs for the average family skyrocketed, in some states increasing 100% a year. 

But the good news on health care is that the democrats have done a fabulous job of brainwashing the American people into believing the high costs they are suffering through for health care are the fault of the Republicans because they cannot come up with a plan to fix Obamacare.  The press will be with us all the way so if we just keep hammering away blaming the republicans, we should be OK.  Health care may be my lead-off topic.

FAST FORWARD TO THE FIRST OF APRIL, 2019.  BIDEN IS THINKING THROUGH HIS CANDIDENCY LAUNCH VIDEO. 

I spent a lot of time on that first draft but somehow it seems to ring a little hollow.  And after listening to the other nineteen democrat/liberal/progressive/socialist candidates, it seems the trend is to do one of three things.  One, go beyond far-left with a bunch of outlandish, undefinable, unaffordable hair-brained new policies.  Or two, just talk around the major issues facing America today and, in effect, say nothing.  Or three, join the crowd and just attack Trump. 

All that stuff in the first draft can be left for later.  The objective is to defeat Trump then get on with what I really want to do as President.  Irrespective of the praise Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton heaped on Donald Trump a few years ago for his decades of work helping minorities and the poor, the vocal left and the press have millions of Americans believing trump is a racist.  While I have no knowledge that it is true, we can keep a full-court-press on the issue.  If enough people say it is true, more will believe it and racism will take on a life of its own. 

SO ON 25 APRIL, 2019 JOE BIDEN SAID: “We are in a battle for the soul of this nation.”

He joined the hatemongers of the democratic/liberal/progressive/socialist left because the bottom line is, that is about all he has to work with. 

JOE BIDEN’S THINKING THIS PAST WEEKEND:

This next year is going to be a real drag arguing with all those other strange-name want-a-be candidates who are mostly clueless and don’t have a chance of getting the nomination. 

SAYING TO HIMSELF:  Just remember Joe, you don’t have to win every primary.  You just have to do enough to get to the 2020 Democratic Convention.  If my age has become too much of an issue, I will tell the attendees that I am only planning to serve four years.  Also, I will ask Michele Obama to be my Vice President and she can then run and take over in 2024 for eight years.  They will go crazy.  It will be a slam dunk. 

JOE, REMINDER TO SELF: While I’m thinking about the convention, I need to make a note to insure we have an American flag on the stage this time.  I recall at the beginning of the 2016 convention The Daily Caller reported that, “It doesn’t look like there are any American Flags.  The stage is bland and grey, with no red, white or blue present. A thorough look at the crowd present also turns up no American flags”.

FINALLY, IN CLOSING:

MEMO TO JOE BIDEN

Date: 26 April, 2019

From:  The American People

Subject:  How to Not Win

Joe, four things you need to lock into your brain and believe:

One, Americans are sick and tired of the culture of hate the Left and Media have perpetrated on us and continue to do so.  Remember, those on the Right, have no one to hate.  The Republicans are not a part of the hatemonger movement.  If you take a deep breath, site back and be intellectually honest with yourself you will begin to understand that. The best way to, “win the battle for the soul of this nation” is to lead the democrat/liberal/progressive/socialists away from the hate culture. 

Two, if you believe you can win an election by just hammering on the baseless theme that, “Trump is a racist” you will be sorely disappointed.  Your cohorts and the media are doing a good job of pursuing a campaign to get millions saying, “Trump is a racist”, in the hope that the remainder will sign up to that thesis because of the brainless tactic, “If everyone is saying it, it must be true.”

Three, if you want to win you have to acknowledge that we the people are better off today than we were in 2016; much better.  Then you have to convince us that you can build on that situation better than President Trump can.  Lots of luck with that.   If you don’t, you fail again. 

Four, “third time is a charm” is just a senseless saying with no basis in fact. 

Signed:  WE THE PEOPLE

Marv Covault

A

Now that the Muller investigation is completed, there is still a great deal of unfinished business with respect to the 2016-2018 timeframe.  Much of it centers around the leadership of the FBI, the Department of Justice and the intelligence community. 

As much as I hate to say this, we need another Special Prosecutor.  Having said that, this country should not have to go through another 22 months of point/counter point speculation every day about what the Special Prosecutor is or is not doing.

Attorney General Barr should appoint a Special Prosecutor immediately and organize the members into a number of lawyer/investigator teams.  Each team will have a narrow, specific area to investigate.  For example, did FBI Director Comey obstruct justice in the Clinton investigation? 

Through weekly in-progress-reviews from each team leader, the Special Prosecutor will be able to “see” the whole picture as it emerges.  The Special Prosecutor can then, for example, tell Team 3 that they need to collaborate and merge finding with Team 5, etc. Additionally, the Special Prosecutor will have stood up a Grand Jury. 

Here is the key to success.  Every team is instructed that in 90 days they need to produce a draft report, draw conclusions and make a recommendation as to whether or not their information should be given to a Grand Jury to consider indictments.  Period.

If the Grand Jury votes to indict, so be it.  If not, the case is closed. 

 Is 90 days enough time?  Yes, it is and here is an example of why.  As Director of the FBI, James Comey investigated the Hillary Clinton email issue for over a year involving (his words) over 100 FBI agents.  There is no new news; take that investigation report, as is, go through it and come to some conclusions about what should be done to Clinton and/or Comey. In the Clinton/Comey case, here is what the Special Prosecutor’s team will find. 

On July 5, 2016 FBI Director Comey announced, in a public address, that he was NOT going to recommend filing charges over Clinton’s use of a private email server. “There is insufficient evidence to show Clinton had malicious INTENT”. Remember that word, intent.

Comey: “Our investigation looked at whether there is evidence classified information was improperly stored or transmitted on her personal system in violation of a federal statute making it a felony t mishandle classified information either intentionally or in a grossly negligent way.”

Comment: The mission statement was perfect. 

The law, 18 U.S. Code 793(f): “Whoever, being entrusted with or having lawful possession or control of any document…… relating to the national defense, through GROSS NEGLIGENCE (note, remember those two words) permits the same to be removed from its proper place of custody or delivered to anyone in violation of his trust, or to be lost, stolen, abstracted, or destroyed, …. and fails to make prompt report of such loss, theft, abstraction, or destruction to his superior officer…… shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both.”

Comment:  The law is clear as a bell.  I spent years of my service with classified documents in my possession. When one gets any security clearance you must meet with documents experts who clearly define what you can and cannot do. Then they require you to sign a document, in their presence, stating that you understand it all. Hillary would have signed such a document. It is designed to scare the hell out of you and it does just that.  Bottom line, screw up and you go to jail, period. People do screw up and they do go to jail. 

Comey: “Secretary Clinton used several different servers while Secretary of State and used numerous mobile devices to view and send e-mails.” 

Comment: An indisputable piece of evidence, and none of these pieces of equipment were secure.

Coney: from the group of 30,000 e-mails….110 e-mails in 52 e-mail chains have been determined by the owning agency to contain classified information at the time they were sent or received. Eight of those chains contained information that was Top Secret at the time they were sent.”

Comment:  There it is, damaging information that routinely sends mere mortals to jail. Period. But it gets worse.  Later in his statement Comey said:

“Seven e-mail chains concern matters that were classified at the Top Secret/Special Access Program level when they were sent and received. These chains involved Secretary Clinton both sending e-mails about those matters and receiving e-mails. There is evidence to support a conclusion that any reasonable person in Secretary Clinton’s position should have known that an unclassified system was no place for that conversation.”

Comment:  Special Access Programs have special requirements. You are “read in” by a member of that particular program. It is so sensitive there may be only a half dozen individuals in a program. Discussions are never transmitted by any means that is subject to interception. There is no greater crime associated with US Code 793(f) than this violation. When Special Access information is carelessly released, innocent people can and do die.

Comey: “Given that combination of factors, we assess it is possible that hostile actors gained access to Secretary Clinton’s personal e-mail account.”

Comment:  This is as far beyond “gross negligence” as one could possibly get.

Comey: “Although there is evidence of potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information, our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case.”

Comment: The following day, July 6th, law professors and prosecutors across the country were being interviewed. Generally, they were astonished and confused because their consensus was that this would be a slam-dunk conviction. 

Comey: “Prosecutors necessarily weigh a number of factors before bringing charges. There are obvious considerations, like the strength of the evidence, especially regarding intent.” 

Comment: first of all, Comey is not a prosecutor and secondly THE CODE DOES NOT REQUIRE THE PROSECUTORS TO EVEN CONSIDER INTENT.  The reason is, if someone clearly “intends” to put highly classified information in the wind, they fall into an entirely different category of offences; they are conducting treasonous actions.  US Code 793(f) is about negligence.

My conclusions: Comey was wrong on the law and he chose to ignore blatant, irrefutable evidence no matter how potentially damaging her actions were. Comey set himself up as investigator, prosecutor, judge and jury. President Obama should have fired Comey the afternoon of July 5th, 2016 for dereliction of duty.

Is 90 days enough for a team to put together an indictment for a Grand Jury?  In this case 90 hours would probably be enough.

What might have happened during the 2016-2018 time period involving senior government officials could end up to be the greatest injustice perpetrated by a small group of people inside the government in the history of this nation.  There is a lot of smoke, we need to know if there is, in fact, a fire. 

Marv Covault

B

Since we are already well into the 2020 presidential campaign season, you will hear the Democrat/Liberal/Progressive/Socialist candidates describe President Trumps Tax Reform Law as, “a tax cut for the rich.”  Over and over and over.

A very simple and ingenious cartoon was produced by Johnston Grocke, Accountants and Financial Planners. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BomQxCG5VG4

It is worth your time to watch the cartoon.  My intent is to describe it to you in print so that you can better absorb all the numbers and think about how grossly wrong “a tax cut for the rich” actually is.

The cartoon goes like this: Once a week 10 gentlemen assemble at a bar to drink beer.  The bar tender sets out $100 worth of beer.  One way of divvying up the bill would be for each to pay $10.  But the low-income guys couldn’t afford $10 a week. So, they decided to use the existing 2016 Tax Code to determine shares. In this cartoon the bar tab ($100) is synonymous with total federal income tax receipts. 

The group of ten men represent the income spectrum from very poor to wealthy; person #1 is the poorest, and each succeeding beer drinker, #2 through #10 makes more money than the person preceding him.

Scenario # 1, 2016, pre-tax reform: At the end of the evening they paid in accordance with where their income fell in the 2016 Federal Tax Code tables. 

Person:

# 1 thru 4 paid $0.

#5 paid $1

#6 paid $3

#7 paid $7

#8 paid $12

#9 paid $18

#10 paid $59

  Total $100

My conclusions:  those who cannot afford to pay the bar tab/taxes, don’t. The more income you have the more bar tab/taxes you pay. Those with the largest income pay the lion’s share of the bar tab/US federal taxes. 

Everyone was happy with the payment system until…….

Scenario # 2, tax year 2018, Trump tax reform:  The bar keeper announced that he would only charge them $80 instead of $100.

#1 thru 4 stay the same and drink for free

But how should # 5 thru 10 divide up the $20 windfall?  Dividing $20 by the 6 remaining men would equal $3.33 less each week than what they paid in Scenario #1.  That would be the FAIR SHARE methodology.

But, if they reduced each by $3.33, #5 and #6 would actually GET PAID to drink beer.  So, “fair share” is not really fair.

The bar tender suggested they continue with the same concept as in Scenario #1;  except pay in accordance with the new Trump tax.

Scenario #2 compared to Scenario #1:

#1 thru #4 still paid $0

#5 joins #1-4 and now also paid $0, a saving of 100% (over the previous payment of $1)

#6 paid $2 instead of $3, a saving of 33%

#7 paid $5 instead of $7, a saving of 28%

#8 paid $9 instead of $12, a saving of 25%

#9 paid $14 instead of $18, a saving of 22%

#10 paid $49 instead of $59, a saving of 16%

Total $80

KEY POINT #1:  WITH THE NEW TAX PLAN/BAR TAB EVERERYONE PAID ZERO OR LESS TAX. But, when #1 thru #9 departed the bar, they began to compare their “savings” ($80-tab vs $100-tab).   #5 says, “Why did I only get $1 saving while #10 got $10? “ #7 says, “I only got a $2 saving and he got $10, the wealthy get all the breaks.”  #1 thru #4 yelled in unison, “We didn’t get anything at all; the new tax system exploits the poor.

KEY POINT #2: The wealthy will always “SAVE” MORE DOLLARS because they put exponentially MORE DOLLARS IN. But all the lower tax brackets get a GREATERE PERCENTAGE SAVED. 

KEY POINT #3: WITH THE LOWER TAX/BAR TAB THE RICH FOLKS “SHARE” ACTUALLY INCREASED FROM 59% TO 61%. 

KEY POINT #4: “PRESIDENT TRUMP’S TAX LAW IS JUST A TAX BREAK FOR THE WEALTHY” IS ABSOLUTELY A FALSE STATEMENT.

Scenario #3: The next week when they assembled to drink beer, #10 didn’t show up. When it came time to pay the tab, they had $30 (#1 thru #5 were free, #6 paid $2, #7 paid $5, #8 paid $9, #9 paid $14) far less than half what they needed. 

KEY POINT #5: WAKE UP AMERICA, it is possible to tax the rich to the point they actually take their money and go away.  Yes, it can happen.  Study the tax/economic situation in France, many rich people are gone.  They found a place to live where they are not disincentivized. 

KEY POINT #6: THERE IS A FALSE NARRATIVE IN THE DEMOCRAT/PROGRESSIVE/LIBERAL/SOCIALIST AGENDA. DON’T BELIEVE IT BECAUSE IT IS NOT TRUE. 

Marv Covault

“

“Trump is a racist”.  Well at least that is what “they” are saying. Who are “they”?  I watch a lot of news and it seems to me “they” includes every democrat/progressive/liberal/socialist who has something derogatory to say about President Trump normally calls him a racist.

Calling anyone a racist is about as ugly a thing one can do. My point is, a person who does that should be sure of their facts. 

With tens of millions of Americans calling President Trump a racist and national media daily venting their emotional outrage over his racism, perhaps it is time to look at some FACTS. 

Other than Hillary calling Candidate Trump (and all of his supporters} racist with zero evidence, my research tells me the genesis of the current Trump racist movement was the riots in Charlottesville, VA on 11-12 August, 2017. 

Several factions of right-wing extremists were in Charlottesville including White Supremacist, KKK and Neo-Nazi. Right-wing organizers arrived with stated goals of unifying the American white nationalist movement and to oppose removing a statue of Robert E. Lee from Charlottesville’s Emancipation Park. 

FACT: About 2 hours after James Fields killed Heather Heyer with his vehicle, President Trump spoke on camera saying, “We all must be united and condemn all that hate stands for. There is no place for this kind of violence in America. Let’s come together as one. We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides.” Isn’t that what one would expect the President to say?

But, “……ON MANY SIDES.”  There it is, those last three words alone have generated a national outcry,  “Trump is a racist.”  Why?  Several reasons. 

First, a FACT: Many of the protestors were local residents and UVA students.  HOWEVER, ANTIFA WAS ALSO THERE!  The Antifa movement is a conglomeration of left-wing groups.  The principal feature of antifa is their tactics; property damage, physical violence and harassment against those on the far right. There you have it. Two groups of ignorant thugs from the far right and left who are not acknowledged by any reasonable individuals or groups as anything but scum of the earth bigots.

Second:  Virginia politicians and the main-stream media went absolutely off the rails. The day following the rally, Charlottesville mayor Michael Signer, addressed the rally participants: “You are not wanted in this great commonwealth.” Signer faulted President Donald Trump for inflaming racial tensions during his 2016 campaign, stating: “I’m not going to make any bones about it.  I place the blame for what you’re seeing in America today right at the doorstep of the White House and the people around the president.”

Third: The media soundly criticized President Trump for blaming “both sides” and for not specifically naming each individual right-wing group that was in Charlottesville that day.  By not naming all of the right-wing groups, the President was presumed to be a supporter of the right-wing groups.

The medias’ meltdown prompted the White House to issue an addendum to his initial remarks: “The President said very strongly in his statement yesterday that he condemns all forms of violence, bigotry, and hatred. Of course, that includes White Supremacists, KKK Neo-Nazi and all extremist groups. He called for national unity and bringing all Americans together.”

Notwithstanding the democrat’s and media’s biased conclusions, a poll by Economist You Gov showed that, when asked “which group is more likely to use violence,” 45% of those polled said both sides were “equally likely”.

Keep in mind that three months prior to this incident, a Harvard study found that 88-93% of daily reporting from ABC, NBC, MSNBC, CBS, CNN, New York Times and Washington Post reporting on President Trump was negative.  Fox News was 50/50 positive/negative. Recurring polling shows that the negative reporting percentages continue today.

What we do not hear about are decades of Trump’s positive relations with minorities. He sued the city of Palm Beach for excluding African Americans and Jews from social clubs. He was praised by Jesse Jackson for support to Jackson’s Rainbow/PUSH Coalition which pressured corporations to hire and promote Black employees. Trump has actively supported the NAACP. He made campaign contributions to Black political candidates. The list is long; Google it up.    

Most individuals who routinely call the President a racist cannot give a reason why they believe that.  Those who can give a reason usually say, “Charlottesville” but cannot recall exactly what the President said that day. This is a perfect example of intellectual honesty being clouded by hate.  Better check your FACTS.

Here is a question for those Americans who just like to casually refer to President Trump as a racist……If you had an opportunity to look President Trump in the eye and call him a racist, would you do it?  And if he said back to you, why do you think I’m a racist?  Your response would probably be,  “Well, everyone says you are so it must be true.”  Is that the best you can do?

There is a good and valid question floating around today, CAN YOU LOVE YOUR COUNTRY MORE THAN YOU HATE YOUR PRESIDENT?  Think about it.

Marv Covault

W

The purpose of this article is to discuss one aspect of the national debate on abortion.  This is NOT about Roe v. Wade, a “women’s right to choose”, “life begins at conception” or the religious issues associated with abortion. 

On 28 January, 2019, in the Virginia House of Delegates, a committee heard testimony from Delegate Kathy Tran as she defended a proposed new abortion law, HB 2491.  There was a very meaningful, telling, disgusting exchange between democrat Delegate Tram and republican Delegate Todd Gilbert. 

The Bill HB2491 seeks to repeal the state’s current restrictions on late-term abortions.  If passed, the measure will do away with the state’s requirement that second and third trimester abortions be performed ONLY to preserve the health or life of the woman.  Currently, three physicians must conclude that a third-trimester abortion is NECESSARY to preserve the health or life of the woman. Under the new law, those requirements are stripped away. 

The exchange between Delegates Gilbert and Tram: 

Gilbert: “How late in the third trimester could a physician perform an abortion if he indicated it would impair the mental health of the woman?” 

Tran: “So, I mean, through the third trimester. The third trimester goes all the way up to 40 weeks.”

Gilbert: “Okay? But to the end of the third trimester?”

Tran: “Yep. I don’t think we have a limit in the bill.

Gilbert: “Where it’s obvious that a woman is about to give birth. She has physical signs that she is about to give birth. Would that still be a point at which she could request an abortion if she was so-certified?” (long pause) Gilbert goes on to say, “she’s dilating,”.

After another long pause, Tram replies: “Mr. Chairman, that would be a decision that the doctor, the physician and the woman would make at that point.”

“I understand that,” Gilbert replied. “I’m asking if your bill allows that.”

Tran replied: “My bill would allow that, yes.”

We cannot discount this as testimony from Tram as some deranged radical.  This proposal has received support from Virginia democrat Gov. Ralph Northam as well as a number of democrat lawmakers.

Family Foundation President Victoria Cobb commented, “This bill creates abortion, virtually on demand, up until the point of birth.”

Last week, New York democrat Governor Andrew Cuomo celebrated, with great fanfare, the alteration of their existing abortion law to allow NON-DOCTORS to conduct abortions until the mother’s due date if the woman’s HEALTH (not LIFE) is endangered.  Comment:  By the very nature of childbirth, isn’t there always a risk to the woman’s health?  Google it up, it’s a long list of bad things that can/do go wrong.  The wording in that law gives every pregnant woman in New York the “go” signal for an abortion at any time, right up to the last minute. 

Time to look at a couple definitions: First-degree murder is any intentional murder that is willful and premeditated.  Second-degree murder is any intentional murder but is not premeditated or planned in advance.

Way to go New York and possibly soon-to-be Virginia!  You have now given every young female the right to commit, at least second if not first degree, murder with only a few minutes thought and walk away free. Given a scenario wherein a healthy woman can decide, within a few minutes of her baby taking his/her first breath, to have that baby killed is beyond barbaric. 

Then confound that murder with the possibility of immediate action to harvest healthy, vital organs and perhaps sell them.  Well. you say, that could never happen in America.  Take off your rose-colored glasses, go back to the 2014-15 time-frame and review the live interviews that were conducted clandestinely with Planned Parenthood physicians. Those interviews were refuted, of course, by Planned Parenthood organization but never proven to be false.

This is not about Row v. Wade.  This is not about the question of when life begins.  This is about seriously looking for an answer to the question, what have we become?  How do the tens of millions of Americans who are celebrating these new monstrous laws believe this is goodness?  How do you look into the future and see that, because of this, we will arrive at a better place?

Marv Covault

S

In SOCIALISM PART I last week I attempted to make four points

Point # 1, DISINCENTIVATION: with it there is no way for the nation to move forward.

Point # 2, WEALTH REDISTRIBUTION: Obama said his overall intention, if elected President, is wealth redistribution.  There is a second and very different method of redistributing wealth.

Point #3, IT WON’T PENCIL: Senator Bernie Sanders and his protégé, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are passionate about their version of socialism for the US, but the real question is, did they fail 4^th grade math?  It would appear so. 

Part 4, BOTTOM LINE:  we cannot afford socialism.

The centerpiece for the Democrat/Liberal/Progressive/ Socialist agenda for the next 22 months leading up to the 2020 presidential election will be health care; whether it is a One-Payer System, Medicare For All or some other National Health Care system.

Notwithstanding that Socialism has no virtues, why are Democrats/Liberals/Socialists/Progressives moving so far left?  Socialism is all about “free” and “free” buys votes.  More “free” buys more votes and lots more “free” buys lots more votes.  And when their constituency is various identity groups, they can craft a “free” program that will appeal to every group.  It may be good politics but it will eventually end badly for America for a number of reasons and not being able to afford it may be the least of our worries.

On 3 November 2018, Scott W. Atlas, MD, —a Senior Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution and a member of Hoover Institution’s Working Group on Health Care Policy— wrote a detailed and insightful article for the Wall Street Journal, entitled The False Promise of Medicare for All.

The purpose of this paper is to draw from his research and get you ready for the socialist barrage of untrue, unsupported BS they are going to use to convince their identity groups that “free health care” can become a viable, popular, fair reality. 

Obama promised a better health care system, Affordable Health Care which has proven to be just the opposite, unaffordable. As if Obama Care is not bad enough, there is a strong possibility that Single Payer, although a simple, catchy title, could be even worse.

Atlas points out that in the five years of ObamaCare, insurance premiums have doubled for individuals and risen 140% for families while deductibles have increased substantially.  Additionally, a record pace of consolidations among hospitals and physician practices, will raise health care prices as fewer hospitals compete for payers. 

For California alone, Single Payer Health Care will cost an estimated $400 billion a year, more than twice their current health care annual budget.  Nationwide, Medicare For All will cost more than $32 trillion over its first decade.  DOUBLING federal personal income and corporate taxes will not be enough to pay for it. 

Around the world, in the past half century, nationalized health care programs have consistently failed to provide timely, high quality medical care compared with the U.S. system.  The consequences are pain, suffering, death, personal disability and forgone wages. 

Last year a record 4.2 million patients were on England’s National Health Service waiting lists; with 362,600 patients waited longer than four months for treatment while 95,252 waited longer than 6 months.  All that waiting was after having received their diagnosis and referral.

In Canada last year, the median wait time between seeing a general practitioner and following up with a specialist was 10.2 weeks.  Wait time between seeing that specialist and beginning treatment was about 5 months.

In nationalized health care systems, even patients referred for URGENT TREATMENT often wait months.  In Britain, more than 19% wait 2 months or longer to begin their first URGENT CANCER TREATMENT while 17% wait more than 4 months for brain surgery.

Canadians with heart disease wait 3 months for their FIRST TREATMENT.  If you need life-changing orthopedic surgery in Canada—like hip or knee replacement—you likely wait 10 months.

In contrast to England and Canada, most US patients face little or no wait for urgent care.

A Single Payer program is no promise of access to quality medical care.  If brought to the US the only reliable promise would be worse health care and higher taxes.  America’s poor and middle class would suffer the most because—let’s face reality—rich folks don’t need health insurance of any type, they can just write a check and probably move to the front of the line or join a quality private-practice health care group. 

Whatever nationalized health system it is, WAKE THE HELL UP AMERICA, it will NOT be “free”.  You will pay like your have never paid before. There is a saying going around that you will never believe how expensive medical care can be until it is “free”.  Some years ago, the British Liberal Party sold their people on a national healthcare concept as “free” and their resulting taxes rank right up there among the highest in the world

FACT, every country that has tried nationalized health care has ended up with less quality health care professionals, much higher taxes, longer wait times for care, pain, suffering, permanent disability, forgone wages and in many cases premature death.  This is not an overstatement. 

But, you say, we are not the UK or Canada, the US can do it better. You are certainly entitled to your own opinion but not your own facts.  The fact is we have had government-run medical care in this country for decades; it’s called The Veterans Administration and it has been such a dismal failure that the whole process has been under scrutiny for the past several years and is not fixed yet. It is clearly documented that veterans have died waiting for an appointment or treatment.

Currently, less than one third of Americans are enrolled in Medicare and Medicaid.  Fact:  between 2004 and 2017 “mistakes and improper Medicare and Medicaid payments” averaged $48 billion per year.  $48 BILLION.  Does that support making Medicare available for all?  Do we therefor surmise that all that graft, corruption, mistakes and improper payment will magically disappear?  I am much more inclined to believe the $48 billion will grow right along with the times-three expansion of the program.  Why? 

Answer.  What makes you believe for one minute that the federal government can effectively and efficiently “run” any new big program?  The federal government has a pretty clear and remarkable history when it comes to “running” big, national programs.  What do the Postal Service established 1775, Social Security 1935, Fannie Mae 1938, War on Poverty 1964, Medicare and Medicaid 1965, and Freddie Mac 1970 all have in common?  Two things, they are big federal government programs run by the government and they are all broke.  And the Democrats/Liberals/Socialists/Progressives all expect you to believe them when they call it “free” and that it will be successful!

Question for the Democrats out there.  Which of the facts above don’t you understand?  You are part of an intelligent electorate; how can you possibly be sucked in to this scam?  Just listen to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez talking to America about how we will pay for One Payer or Medicare For All.  She begns with cuts in Defense. 

Ok, Alexandria, I will “ see” your “cut” in Defense spending and raise you to completely disbanding  the military; take the Defense budget to zero for the next four years.  That “saving” will still fall short of what the government needs to support Medicare For All for ONE year.  It’s 4^th grade math Alexandria and you just don’t get it. 

Having said all of the above, the bottom line is not about dollars, it is about something bigger, something much more important, something that IS America.  Too often we use a shorthand to define our Democracy as simply a system of free elections and we leave it at that.

As stated by Isaiah Berlin more that 30 years ago, “The defining proposition of democracy is that it mandates means (elections, parliaments, markets) but not ends.  Democracy leaves the goals of life entirely up to the individual.  Where the totalitarian, socialistic states decree life’s purposes. 

Furthermore, the late, brilliant writer Charles Krauthammer put it more succinctly—I paraphrase, “we must fight for a vision of limited government that, while providing for the helpless, is committed above all to guaranteeing individual liberty and pursuit of one’s own ends.”

The Democratic party has moved so far left in an effort to be heard above the shouts of the “free” radical left and socialists, they have forgotten about America. They have betrayed the party of FDR, of Harry Truman, of JFK. They are willing to bet America’s future on winning an election. They are willing to go forward— leaning so far to the left— with a single-minded mission of bringing down the current administration out of a pure passion of hate. 

I’m disgusted, dismayed, but mostly just disappointed in part of my America.

Marv Covault