The Chatrodamus Principle: When Incompetence Becomes Government Policy

This is exactly what the American public is sick to death of:

When government rewards incompetence and punishes no one, incompetence becomes standard operating procedure. We shrug, roll our eyes, make a few jokes on late-night TV, and move on. We’ve been numbed into acceptance. Corruption isn’t shocking anymore—it’s background noise.

I Can’t Get No Satisfaction

Then along comes someone like President Trump who says the quiet part out loud and calls a politician “garbage.” He knew exactly what he was doing. He knew it would trigger a full-blown shitstorm of pearl-clutching, racism accusations, and media meltdown. And now we get to watch people like Ilhan Omar and Tim Walz squirm and reach for the only card they know how to play: the victim card.

And here’s the ugly truth we all might be soon singing like the Rolling Stones did so long ago: listening to that tune might be the only satisfaction taxpayers ever get.

California blew over $20 billion on fraudulent unemployment claims—some of it going to death row inmates—and not a single major political figure paid a price. Not one. Business as usual.

Minnesota? Same story, different scam. Billions looted from taxpayers in the “Feeding Our Future” mess, with a network of fraudsters—many of them Somali immigrants—milking a program that was supposed to feed kids. They weaponized our own hospitality and political correctness against us, smearing anyone who raised questions as “racist.” An ongoing decline in American assimilation and a deep fear of being accused of racism were key factors in the massive fraud scheme. And just like California, the smart money says nobody important will be held accountable.

Governor Tim Walz? He looked the other way. Easier to duck, cover, and mumble something about “system failures” than confront the people running the grift. Where is the outrage? Who speaks for the Minnesota taxpayer? Does anyone in power care that some of that money is alleged to have gone to people with ties to terror groups?

And now Minnesota taxpayers will be tapped again after losing billions in this Somali led scam and will ultimately have to pay AGAIN to rebuild the oversight system that allowed the fraud to spread in the first place. Who gets the bill to cover salaries, training and day-to-day operations with these new positions created just to deal with this scam? The Minnesota taxpayers of course! These include; Office of Inspector General, a General Counsel’s Office, trained staff on updated fraud-reporting policies and the hiring of a firm to conduct financial reviews of certain sponsors, among other steps. If you want to know why things cost so much in Minnesota look no further than the 80,000 Somali’s who refuse to live the American way, instead, taking, and giving nothing back. Chatrodamus stands with President Trump, send them back!

And let’s not kid ourselves—this is probably just the tip of the iceberg. There are blue states all over the map running similar “feel-good” programs ripe for fraud: food stamps, COVID relief, housing funds, you name it. When there’s that much money sloshing around with that little oversight, you don’t just get waste—you attract predators. Maybe the boys at the top get their cut, maybe they just like the votes and the headlines. Either way, the corruption hasn’t fully surfaced yet.

America’s Check Engine Light Is On: Ignore It Long Enough and the Engine (Government) Blows Up

The U.S. national debt now sits at around $38 trillion—a number so massive it barely feels real. How did we get here? Chatrodamus speculates that one big piece of the answer is simple: fraud and abuse. Tax dollars that were supposed to shore up programs and reduce the need for borrowing instead got siphoned off into the pockets of politicians, grifters, and their friends. Just look at the target-rich environment for scams: Social Security, SNAP, USAID, Feeding Our Future, Medicare, Medicaid, tax credits, and more. GAO estimates the federal government loses between $233 billion and $521 billion every year to fraud, based on data from 2018–2022.

On top of that, federal improper payments have totaled roughly $2.8 trillion since 2003—and that’s likely an undercount, since not every program even reports. In FY 2024 alone, 16 agencies reported about $162 billion in improper payments across 68 programs, with roughly three-quarters of that mess concentrated in those same big-ticket areas. In theory, cutting fraud and improper payments is supposed to protect federal funds, help agencies do their jobs, and maintain public trust. In practice? Chatrodamus says the guards look a lot like the robbers. Public trust is shot, scams keep popping up, and it feels like there are more people gaming the system than there are trying to protect the American taxpayer.

And through it all, these crooked or clueless politicians cling to the same script:

• Government is infallible.
• If the system fails, it’s because critics are racist.
• Or Republicans are “politicizing it.”
• Or journalists are “overhyping” it.

It can never be that the programs themselves are poorly designed and wide open for abuse. Oh no. That would require admitting failure—and we can’t have that.

So the cycle repeats. Bigger budgets. Bigger scams. Less accountability.

I’ve talked about the Peter Principle on this blog before—the idea that people get promoted to their level of incompetence. They climb the ladder until they reach a job they can’t actually do, then they just sit there and clog the system.

Time to add a new rule to the handbook: The Chatrodamus Principle.

Once a politician rises beyond their competence—usually by hanging around long enough, buying influence, or sliding into a vacancy when someone retires or dies—they stop being judged on results. From that point on, their only real skill is blame-shifting.

Chatrodamus Principle, Exhibit A: yet another politician who never seems to pay a price for behavior that would put Joe Everyman under the prison. New York AG Letitia James has already faced questions over false information on her own mortgage paperwork—misstatements that magically get waved away as “administrative errors.” Must be nice. Let Joe Everyman “accidentally” fudge numbers on a loan app and it’s straight to Parchman, do not pass go, do not collect $200.

And when she’s called on it? Suddenly it’s all about Trump “weaponizing” the justice system to get revenge on her for the very tactics she used on him. The nerve of that brown skank. Two grand juries look the other way and we’re all just supposed to shrug and move on. Joe Everyman would like a word.

Now, as of today’s news, James is being sued for allegedly threatening to remove school board members if they dare let parents or students speak openly about trans athletes in girls’ sports and locker rooms. The complaint points to a “guidance letter” warning boards that using the “wrong” pronoun—or even allowing students to voice their fears and discomfort—could get elected members booted from their seats. That’s not “tolerance,” that’s state-enforced speech. James in full DEI hall monitor mode, swinging the power of her office like a club and daring anyone to object.

Another fine example? Minnesota’s governor, “Tampon Tim” Walz. Maybe he was fine as a state representative. But as governor? He’s out of his depth. You don’t preside over massive fraud on your watch, shrug it off, and call that leadership. That’s not bad luck—that’s incompetence mixed with cowardice.

And once these people hit their Chatrodamus ceiling, nobody upstairs wants to admit the mistake. Evaluating them on output would be embarrassing for the party bosses, the donors, and the pundits who sold them as “the future of leadership.” So instead:

• They blame racism.
• They blame Republicans.
• They blame “misinformation.”
• They blame everyone except the mirror.

And they continue to fail upward.

Meanwhile, the taxpayer—the guy who actually funds the circus—gets nothing but higher bills, more fraud, and a front-row seat to the same tired victim routines from the same protected political class.

The question isn’t “How did this happen?”

The real question is: How much more are we going to tolerate before we finally stop accepting incompetence as the price of doing business with our own government?