Who Is This Man?

He’s a registered Democrat who campaigned for and voted for Obama. His business partner is black. His high school girlfriend and prom date was black. When funding ran out for a local program mentoring black youth he continued working with them. He organized assistance for a local homeless black man who was assaulted by a white man.  He is part black and his black relatives once lived with him.

This man is George Zimmerman, a “racist white Hispanic” according to many in the media and government.  Certainly truth can’t be allowed to interfere with a political agenda, can it?

Copyright 2013, Mark L. Bennett

Beneath the Radar

Most of what I have written has discussed well known local and national issues. This time I will look at two developments presently “beneath the radar”.  First is Statement No. 67 issued by the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (appropriately referred to by the acronym GASB).  This does not change how pension funds calculate their finances or obligations, but it does change how they publicly report their financial situation.  So within the next year or so, while nothing significant will have changed with pension stability, the media will alarm the public based solely on the changed reporting requirements. 

This will sow more distrust and provide another excuse for more government regulations with proposals for higher taxes for public pensions. Businesses will be asked to delay investments and/or reduce dividends to make greater pension contributions. It will also require more people sitting at desks crunching numbers instead of doing productive work that builds a future. Score another one for those destroying the United States.

The Securities and Exchange Commission, the Food and Drug Administration, The Environmental Protection Agency and countless other regulatory agencies have for many years now engaged in what is essentially an extortion scheme. They charge a company with wrongdoing and then have that company pay the agency money without legally admitting any wrongdoing. Companies such as Facebook, Merck, Goldman Sachs and others have been involved. Some consider this efficient government since the money helps support the agency without additional tax monies. Of course, it also helps them to expand with minimal outside approval. Federal and state agencies received $1.92 billion from HSBC, the former Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corp, for agreeing not to indict them for money transfers which included Mexican drug cartels and the Iranian government.

But the agencies’ prosecution of corporate wrong doing looks good in the media and the public seems to accept that they are doing their job.  And while some cases are probably simple extortion, many clearly are not.  But without an admission or legal ruling of guilt, it is extremely difficult for an ordinary person or group of ordinary people to sue and collect damages if they have been injured.  You would have to prove, for example, that a pharmaceutical company lied about a drug that disabled you rather than be

able to just sue based upon the regulatory agency’s court sanctioned legal finding of guilt. No matter what the merits of your case your adversary can file appeals until long after your death. Cynical Charles Dickens said “People are born into the case and people die into the case,” in Bleak House, his novel about the legal system.

While I am opposed to legislating from the bench, I am pleased to hear dissension from several judges. In one instance U.S. District Judge Emmett Sullivan called the $298 million arrangement between the U.S. Department of Justice and Barclays Bank, which included dropping of charges for trading with hostile foreign powers, a “sweetheart deal”.  Going a bit further, U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff refused to approve a payment of $285 million for likely securities fraud from Citibank to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and demanded a trial with a conclusion of guilt or innocence.  Both the SEC and Citibank said that Judge Rakoff made a “clear error of law”. But Rakoff’s decision has brought forth support which spans the political spectrum from small business conservatives to left wing Senator Bernie Sanders.

The new SEC head, Mary Jo White, said that she would like more admissions of guilt. Attorney General Eric Holder stated that the Department of Justice would pursue more cases and that making billons and then paying fines in the millions is hardly a disincentive to crime. Time will tell if anything changes the status quo.  Will they decide if these laws are to protect we the people or just to enrich government?

How long can we endure the government in itself, by itself and for itself?

Copyright 2013, Mark L. Bennett

More Obama Atrocities

Some of my readers have informed me that my prior commentary about Elizabeth Warren and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was too technical. So this commentary will skip the mechanics and discuss only the outcomes of Obama’s planned limits on retirement account savings.  Its complexity is mind numbing, expensive and with perhaps impossible requirements. It appears analogous to the concept of vague laws that are unenforceable within democratic traditions. Therefore it may entrap citizens and will contribute to the why bother to achieve attitude prevalent among so many young people today.

People’s retirement savings will be vastly reduced. While it is being sold as a tax the rich scheme with its 3.4 million dollar retirement savings cap, a closer look reveals that it could set limits as low as $131,000. Private invested capital within our economy would be vastly reduced.  This leads to lower standards of living, more government borrowing and more dependence upon government. But it does satisfy the lust of the hate the rich crowd while producing relatively meaningless amounts of additional government revenue. 

Over the past few decades all Presidents and all Congresses have done the opposite of Obama. They have produced legislation to make it easier to save for retirement because it is good for the economy, good for the individuals involved and represents the will of the people. Obama, however, “hears a different drummer”.

Obama wanted credit for his appointment of Sonia Sotomayer as the first Hispanic Supreme Court Justice. However, Benjamin Cardozo was the first Hispanic Supreme Court Justice. But truth is never an impediment to Obama. He just changed history like past dictators who erased people from photos and the lapdog media, including government funded PBS, complied. They claimed that he was Portuguese and therefore not Hispanic.  Anyone familiar with that historical period knows that his ancestors fled the Spanish Inquisition to Portugal and then on to the New World as alleged Portuguese. Besides, Mr.Cardozo has a politically incorrect background, his family was wealthy with Revolutionary War heroes among his ancestors.

Is this pattern of Obama’s actions, along with Obamacare and his other programs, becoming clear yet? But Obama’s lucky being black, that makes him harder to confuse with Joseph Stalin. 

Copyright 2013, Mark L. Bennett

Guilty of Fraud

Buried within the 2,300 pages of Dodd-Frank is the creation of a new federal agency, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).  This agency has taken responsibilities from other Federal agencies governed by the Congressional oversight we used to take for granted as democratic checks and balances and now exercises those powers without Congressional oversight.  The CFPB operates from within the independent Federal Reserve Bank with funding from the Fed but without supervision from them and also separate from House of Representative’s power to appropriate or not appropriate money. The CFPB has the power to define legally vague terms such as abuse and therefore attack a financial institution under its own seat of the pants rules. It has been accused of “ad hoc prosecution” by former White House counsel C. Boyden Gray.  It can create regulations and recently produced 804 pages for qualified mortgages and 753 pages for mortgage servicing. It has been acquiring checking account, credit card, etc. records from banks and others in a data mining effort similar to that of the National Security Agency.

The head of the CFPB is Richard Cordray, appointed by Obama as a recess appointment when the Senate was not in recess. The legality of this is presently working its way through the Federal Courts. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is the brainchild of Elizabeth Warren, who before becoming a senator from Massachusetts, set up the agency as a special adviser. She was appointed as special adviser so Obama could avoid a probably contentious Congressional approval process of her as director. Prior to this Ms. Warren had advanced her career as Harvard’s “first women of color”, a minority law teacher in the American Association of Law Schools directory and one of eight minority persons to win a certain award at the University of Pennsylvania. She even contributed to the 1984 “Pow Wow Chow” cookbook with allegedly Cherokee recipes which included one with the hardly traditional Cherokee ingredient of cognac.  Apparently this recipe was from a 1979 New York Times food column. She also listed herself, at times, as white despite her supposed 1/32 Cherokee blood. The Nazis’ used a 1/8 rule to decide who would live or die. The Federal government uses the 1/16 rule to determine who is entitled to various benefits for Native Americans. A 1/32 doesn’t mean anything.

However, genealogists have determined that Ms. Warren not only has no Cherokee blood, but that her specific 1/32 ancestor was married to a member of the Tennessee Militia that rounded up Cherokees and imprisoned them in a stockade as part of the infamous trail of tears. According to one Native American commentator Ms. Warren has not only never affiliated with any Native American organizations, but has rebuffed them including delegates to a Democrat National Convention.  When four Cherokee women traveled cross county to see her she accused them of being part of a right wing conspiracy. Another Native American writer said, “Elizabeth Warren has not just stolen an ethnic identity that does not belong to her, but she has also personally benefited from it and harmed the integrity of the American ethos…Americans cares about these things because America cares about integrity, honesty and fair treatment.”

Perhaps an agency with illegitimate powers, run by a fraudulently appointed director and designed by a fraudulent person is best suited to root out fraud from consumer financial products? Perhaps I don’t understand the wisdom by which Washington governs today?  Recently the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has undertaken a massive study of bank fees and has also caused Capital One to refund $149 million to customers, Discover $200 million and American Express $85 million. Whatever the merits of these situations or the quality of the processes, the average person who has not looked deeper sees good stuff happening. Therein lays the danger of the CFPB. It is a Trojan horse to establish more regulatory agencies without, at least, the structural checks and balances of American democracy. As it is, today’s news is unrelenting in its stories of renegade existing agencies with supposed safeguards.

Copyright 2013, Mark L. Bennett

Outside the Ivory Tower: Polarization & Extremism

In my 1/16/11 commentary entitled “Arizona and The State of the Union” I discussed the dangers of polarization in American politics. Two recent new articles illustrate how extreme the situation has become.  “Court: Christian driver can sue Oklahoma over ‘rain god’ license plate” describes a man’s anger over the “pagan” image of a Native American shooting an arrow to the rain god on the Oklahoma license plates. Monotheism is relatively new in the human experience. Does this man forget that the days of the week are named after Roman gods? Or that many consider the E-I-E-I-O chorus of Old McDonald’s Farm to be an ancient chant to the Celtic fertility goddess? Or that the desires of the Muslim Brotherhood government in Egypt to destroy the pyramids has outraged people worldwide? Personally, I observe Deuteronomy 27:17: “Cursed be he that removeth his neighbor’s landmark. And all the people shall say, Amen.” Isn’t respect critical to Biblical faith

On the other side of the spectrum I read an article entitled “Children’s media use cuddly animals to reinforce ‘racist’ and socially dominant norms,’ researcher says”.  “Young children’s media reproduces and confirms racist, colonial, consumerist, hetronormative, and patriarchal norms” the article continued in their objections to “The Berenstain Bears”, “Goodnight Moon” and “Five Little Monkeys jumping on the bed”. While what they consider colonial or racist was not defined in the article, their agenda is clear when they state “…bees buzzing around a hive or ants in an ant farm can teach the importance of community and teamwork…” Do they really think that the behavior of bees and ants is akin to the values of individualism and responsibility necessary for freedom and democracy? Or is this just the logical reverse of their objection to the anthropomorphism of animals? They base their critique of this on the same radical environmental agenda that says it’s OK to be mauled by grey wolves.

Are children pawns in someone else’s social experiments or do they simply need to feel secure? Is there anything wrong with knowing that daddy goes to work and pays the mortgage and that mommy is there with a hug and a band aid when you scrape your knee? A secure childhood is the basis for adults to later thoughtfully examine themes like colonialism or consumerism. And extreme ideas do help to articulate the arguments and define the consensus middle ground that most can agree on. But do objecting to “pagans” on license plates or traditional roles in children’s books do this? I find them to not be expansive to the mind, but rather defensive postures. They contribute to polarization, not healing.

There may be hope. A broad coalition is emerging to oppose Obama’s civil liberties sins. Many people are saying that while we can disagree, we can all agree to play fair. A religious revival, another great awakening, is a possibility to renew America. Clearly, but perhaps not consciously, Obama’s war on religion (except for Islam) is working to prevent this.  Since so many of us are being persecuted, it is natural to feel defensive such as the license plate objector.  Just as narrowly the paper criticizing children’s books led the writer to academic advancement in her ivory tower.  But what are effects of one’s beliefs and actions on society as whole and the ability of America to thrive or to continue in decline?

Copyright 2013, Mark L. Bennett

Outside the Ivory Tower: Musings & Observations

During the Presidential debates I wanted the various moderators to ask both Obama and Romney this question: How would have President Andrew Jackson responded in Benghazi?

Obama’s persecution of the press appears to repeat the mistake the British made with the Stamp Act. They taxed the press and their editorials retaliated, partly leading to the American Revolution. Obama should have known this, but apparently the American history curriculum was lacking in the Indonesian madrassah where he studied.

In 1790 Alexander Hamilton sent his proposal for the Treasury Department to James Madison for review. Madison replied that if we sell bonds into international markets, foreigners may buy them and try to control us. You are probably more likely to learn this studying American History in Beijing than Washington. Read history answered Winston Churchill when asked how he learned leadership. Harry Truman answered a similar question with read biography. Every form of government throughout history was examined and debated by the Founding Fathers.

Some say that our Constitution of limited government is outmoded. Have the Ten Commandments lost relevance over the last 3200 years? Far too many people today view the world around them through the blinders of a preconceived ideology. An ahistorial attitude best describes the circus in today’s Washington. Recalling the vernacular of my youth I ask: Do you know what is really real?

Copyright 2013, Mark L. Bennett

Environmental Extremism Metastasizes

A Greek mining project worth about a billion dollars in exports to Greece, equaling 2% of their total exports, is being delayed. Joining forces with the environmentalists is the Greek Communist Party.

“Blood will flow if this continues,” stated one opponent.  In addition to Greece mining projects have been stopped or inhibited by environmentalists in Portugal, Spain and Cyprus. Does all this have a relationship to their economic plights or is it just some inexplicable coincidence?

The Bristol Bay/Pebble Bay project in Alaska could create 15,000 American jobs and contribute over $2.4 billion to GDP annually. To prevent this the EPA has adopted a new and unprecedented approach. They rejected the project based on their own biased, in house model before the project developers could even submit their proposal which contained newer and more detailed information costing them over $150 million dollars. The environmental opposition’s rhetoric bears an uncanny resemblance to the local Newman Ridge opponents. The potential of the local Sutter Gold property, only 4.6 % of Amador County’s share of the Mother Lode, is about $1.5 billion at current gold prices. And that’s with 90% of their small property unexplored.

We are lucky to have mining potential here since the timber industry has been destroyed.  Other timber counties are not so lucky. Josephine County in Oregon is now considering having just one Sheriff’s patrol for its 83,000 residents. Curry County, also in Oregon, is facing a state takeover. Liberal Democrat Governor John Kitzhaber, who sat in Michelle Obama’s box at the 2013 State of the Union address, proposed an increase in property taxes for these two distressed counties. After the voters rejected that he proposed a local income tax and threatened the residents with National Guard troops or state police to replace the depleted locally controlled law enforcement.  The logic of fighting poverty by increasing poverty escapes me.

Is there any lesson here for Amador County?  While we are well governed fiscally, and are near major cities that send us tourists unlike the Oregon counties discussed, the situation grows worse each year.

Yet an elitist well financed and manipulative minority has undue influence here and throughout the foothills. They call themselves environmentalists; I call them the pro poverty lobby. How long are we going to put up with this?

Copyright 2013, Mark L. Bennett