“From city halls to county courthouses, from the State house to the White House – bureaucrats control our lives.  Public servants who often try to become our masters.  People whose salaries we pay, but what goods and services do we get?  On Sierra Wave’s Bureaucrat Beat, we’ll report what they’re up to.”  That’s the Bureaucrat Beat declaration of dissatisfaction, but as you may know, Bureaucrat Beat talks about so much more.

LA Mayor Garcetti

LA Mayor Garcetti

How about that Los Angeles mayoral election?  Seems candidate Wendy Greuel lost her edge when her opponent, now Mayor Eric Garcetti, started to call her DWP’s Mayor in his TV ads.  Ouch.  Even in LA, that doesn’t fly.  She conceded.  Do people in LA really care?  You have to think not since only a 19% voter turn-out elected the Mayor.  Will Garcetti look more askance at DWP and more favorably at the Owens Valley?  Who knows.  We hear Garcetti may plan to replace City department heads and commissioners.  Look for some LA heads to roll.

The  LA rumor mill says Garcetti might even bring back David Freeman to head LADWP!!!  He was the one who helped craft the Dry Lake clean-up.

Head rolling should grow to new heights in other places.  According to a recent New York Times opinion piece, corporate America spends very little and gets huge breaks from Congress.  According to the article, a campaign finance reform organization called United Republic compiled statistics that show the presription drug industry spent $116 million lobbying for legislation to prevent Medicare from bargaining down drug prices and the legislation that resulted allowed drug companies to make an additional $90 billion per year.  Great return on investment!!!!

Companies with cadres of lobbyists can jump on sudden opportunities.  They mostly manage to tack on tax code concessions to any bill that comes along.   And, then, of course legislative staff members often become lobbyists since they’re connected.  If only we in the Bureaucrat Beat Newsroom and all of you out there were so connected!

In a recent article by Bill Moyers, he says Congress barely squeezes out a 15% approval rating from the public.  He called Congress “as cranky and inert as an obnoxious old uncle who refuses to move from his easy chair.”  Moyers says corporate tax breaks have “more than doubled in the last 25 years.”  How nice for them.

Back to small town Inyo-Mono.  Supervisor Tim Alpers celebrated his birthday May 31.  He came on board in Mono just when things had turned sour with the closure of June Mountain and lots of other issues.  Alpers forges on.  Stay tuned for more news.

Inyo County Administrator Kevin Carunchio called website blogs a “dumbing down of democracy.”  That’s assuming it was ever very smart. We like the open forum of Sierrawave.net and the airing of views that goes on there.  Super nasty remarks go to the trash.  Many news tips have turned up on the blog – tips that helped with understanding

IRS employee spoofing Star Trek (?) at taxpayers' expense.

IRS employee spoofing Star Trek (?) at taxpayers’ expense.

issues.

Did you see the video and hear the story about the IRS spending nearly (choke, gag) $50 million on some 220 conferences!!!!  They spent $135,000 on “a happiness expert”, a session called “Leadership Through Art” and more such absurdities.  They shot videos of IRS employees line dancing, pretending to be Star Trek and Gilligan’s Island characters.  What!!???

Okay.  We in the Bureaucrat Beat Newsroom have decided that the Tax Code, roughly 74,000 pages ( Come on, already!!) ,  has driven the IRS workers insane.  After all, what they did in those conferences and how they spent money equals deep insanity.  It was like a poke in the eye to the government.  They hired no-bid conference speakers and participants, flew them first class, gave them expensive gifts.

It all adds up to proof that the U.S. seriously needs to throw out the tax code and adopt a five-page replacement.  Maybe a flat tax with some exceptions.  Get American companies back in the U.S. where they will pay taxes.  Get rid of stupid loop holes.  The IRS employees are telling us something – Insanity rules in the IRS!!

 

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