Failure is as failure does!

Failure is as failure does!

We are a country divided. In the not too distant past, it was Free States vs Slave States and we fought a bloody civil war to settle that question. Visit the Farmington War Memorial in front of town hall and look at the names of the Town's honored dead.  More residents died in the Civil War than in all other wars combined. The town paid a high price to end that divide.

Today we are still a country divided. Not red state vs blue state. Not Democrat vs Republican. Not male vs female [including the oft touted war on women].  Not straight vs LGBT [don't tell I could not care less]. Not God fearing vs atheist. You get the idea.  We are a country divided by a very simple fact.  About half the country are Makers and about half the country are Takers and to crib Lincoln a country so divided against itself can not long endure.

Once upon a time, people came to America to become Americans. Yes they came from Poland, Germany, Scotland, Ireland [as did my family] but they came to These United States and became Americans. Americans with American values; namely, Life, Liberty, Property [anti-slavery Founders preferred to say "Pursuit of Happiness" for obvious political reasons], and Individual Responsibility.

Somewhere along the line, probably starting in the Progressive era [think Theodore "T.R." Roosevelt], a small group of dedicated Collectivists began to change what it meant to be American. 112 years later, about half the country believes not in individual responsibility for outcomes but in government handouts. Not hard work and individual achievement but entitlements. Not in delayed gratification and effort towards one's grandchildren having a better life but greed and envy of what someone else has earned. Not in education as the way up and out but in union controlled government mandated propaganda creating obedient and compliant Sheeple. Not in natural rights granted by God [and for the non believers among us natural rights by virtue of our sapience] but in laws made, rescinded or ignored by government and self proclaimed academic elites who think they know better than you how you should live your life.

The amazing part of this transition is that Progressive Collectivist have demonstrated that using the coercive power of the state to socially engineer Sovereigns Citizens almost always fails. Well with two significant exception, taking OPP [Other Peoples’ Property] from Makers and redistributing it to Takers and perpetrating mass murders on one's own citizens.  In the former, it appears that if you give people free stuff long enough [about 112 years] they begin to think that they are ENTITLED.  But at some point, Makers will get tired of doing all the work just so the Takers can get free stuff and the old CCCP adage kicks in [you pretend to pay me and I pretend to work] and the economy crashes.  In the latter case, it appears that killing one's own population in order to achieve the greater good is almost always a “go to” tool in the Progressive Collectivist governing tool kit! If you doubt this could ever happen in the USA read a copy of any Continuity of Government plan and then pray to whatever deities you believe in that there are more Oath Keepers in your local Law Enforcement, Guard, Reserve, and on Active Duty than not!

But I am digressing from the main point of today’s post.  Most big government programs touted by Progressive Collectivists don’t work. Evidence of this assertion is everywhere before our eyes. Without going into too much detail and having another mega post consider:

• The Ponzi Scheme that is Social Security [feeling good about the program once you learn that there is no Lock Box with “your” money in it?]

• Medicare which after promising a currently estimated 300% payout in benefits is going broke and has a reported 25% waste, fraud, and abuse rate.

• The 2008 Housing Crash for which you have the government's Community Reinvestment Act, The Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (FHLMC), known as Freddie Mac, The Federal National Mortgage Association (FNMA) and Congress to thank.

• The impending Student Loan bubble [because everyone has to go to college and have their head stuffed with mush, graduate with no particle or critical thinking skills but lots of debt].

• Massive unrecognized government [at all levels] unfunded pension and retirement healthcare benefits promises [thereby guaranteeing a pro-government voting block out of fear of loss of benefits]

• A Medicaid systems that is growing as more and more people are defined as "in need" and a system that pays providers less than their “allowable” costs to provide services.

• A growing Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program aka SNAP [think food stamps] a program that ignores able body status and work / community service requirements [that last one almost caused Grand Mal Seizures in public sector union halls across the state].

• The War on Poverty [we spent trillions over the last 50 years with virtually no change in the rate unless you are counting things like the illegitimacy rate, obesity rate, high school drop out rate, single head of household rate, etc. etc. etc.]

• The TSA [before they got guns]

• The War on Drugs

• The War on Terrorists and Terrorism

• Securing our borders

• Spending billions of dollars on “politically connected” yet failed Green Energy companies

• Massive corn subsidies for Ethanol

• EPA issuing an "Endangerment Finding" in which it has determined that CO2 poses a threat to human health and welfare [missed that clause in the Constitution of These United States]

• Massive agricultural subsidies for mostly corporate farms [can you say corporate welfare]

• A tax system riddled with loopholes which allow connected companies [think GE and Google] to “legally” avoid paying their “fair share” of federal taxes

• And let us not forget ObamaCare, the "nationalization" of about 1/7th the US economy [yeah it is nationalization when the government tells you when, where, how much and if]

Did you notice a theme?  Doesn't matter if the program achieves its stated outcome goals. What matters is 1) does it grow government 2) give government more control over the lives of the Sheeple 3) make the Sheeple more dependent on the government and conversely less able to think / do / be responsible for themselves thereby perpetuating government's control [think modern slavery] and 4) reward contributors and the politically connected especially among big business [think classical Fascism].

On the state level:

• the First Five scandal which spent millions to purchase a low number and in some cases arguably no jobs but garnered many days of headlines and positive press for Governor Mao Loy

• Jackson Laboratories [Not a single commercial product or service]

• CT Earned Income Tax Credit [the state takes income taxes from people who pay them and gives the money to people who do not pay any income taxes - once upon a time this was call CHARITY and the state was not involved]

• The Busway to nowhere  [sorry New Britain and Hartford]

• The train wrecks [sorry trains] and corruption that are the CT Department of Children and Families, DEEP, & the DMV

At long last the main point of my post.  The CT Mirror occasionally does good objective reporting.  Their latest story “CT's Sandy housing program yet to repair a single home” is worth a read.  In an effort at brevity, the point of the story is that one year after Super-storm Sandy, not a single homeowner has been helped by a new program aimed at repairing homes.  Similar programs in New York and New Jersey have also failed to rehab a single house. You can't make this stuff up. You've gotta love Progressive Collectivist government programs! I wonder how many jobs were "created or save" by this program. Can't wait until ObamaCare is fully implemented and we see bureaucratic failure and corruption on a truly massive scale.

I Miss America