Day: May 2, 2014

A Gathering Of Patriots

We all would like to believe that we are a patriot……strange you may be or not, depends on what your definition of the term……….calling yourself “patriot” does not make you one….in your mind maybe but that is as far as it will go…….

The most recent gathering of patriots was in Bumphuk, Nevada when some malignant militia types showed up to help some bloated freeloader in his confrontation with the government…..I understand the theory behind their actions even if they were illegal…the local meanies showed up with their arsenals and proceeded to intimidate the government agents on the ground……..some news outlets named the rancher and his cancerous buddies as patriots….a true patriot is NOT a thug with a gun.

I ask these sunshine patriots, looking for publicity, where do they draw they line?

We know that they will show up to support a law breaker but will they show up for a legitimate cause?

The Keystone XL pipeline has reignited the emotional issue of eminent domain — the taking of private property for public use — all along its proposed route. The vast majority of landowners have signed agreements with TransCanada, the pipeline owner. But where necessary, the Calgary, Alberta-based company is busy going to state courts to exercise eminent domain and lining up rights to cross properties throughout the Great Plains — even though the State Department and Obama administration still are weighing whether to give TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline a permit to cross the U.S.-Canadian border.

You see the issue of eminent domain will be used to in essence steal people’s land…….now will these so-called “patriots” come to the aid of these ranchers and farmers?  will they show up with their massive fire power and buck a huge corporation?

I think not.

Just as the Nevada star faded into oblivion so will these gutless wonders and there ‘patriotism’.

Yeah, these twats are PATRIOTS!

The Auto Bailout

Just after Obama took office the auto industry was going down the drain and the government stepped in and save them from dying an agonizing death…….of course once we did bail them out there was a wealth of pros and cons and just an amazing amount of bat crap crazies….the usual suspects that radio guy and the Info guy and the like…..let’s just say a lot of them came out of the woodwork…….

After awhile the auto industry got back on their feet and started showing a profit and even paying the government back for their confidence in the industry to bounce back….all it needed was a little help….

Could there be more to the story of the auto bailout?  Glad you asked…….

DETROIT, MI- The auto bailout of General Motors cost taxpayers more than initially reported, according to a government report released today.

In its quarterly report, the Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Assets Relief Program reports taxpayers lost $11.2 billion on the bailout of the Detroit-based automaker, up from $10.3 billion the U.S. Treasury estimated when selling its last GM shares on Dec. 9.

Overall, the report finds that taxpayers lost roughly $15 billion from the $85 billion automotive bailout of GM, Chrysler and their financial arms.

“As of March 31, 2014, taxpayers have lost $11.2 billion on the principal TARP investment in GM. Taxpayers had also lost $845 million on the sale of Ally Financial’s common stock, as well as $2.9 billion on the principal TARP investment in Chrysler Holding LLC,” reads the more than 500-page report.

Oh goody!  we were duped again.  It is amusing that I NO longer find any of this surprising…….just another indication of how the news is manipulated…..and just another lie to the American people……when will we ever learn?

Let me know if you have seen this on any of the major news outlets, please……so far I have seen NOTHING!

How Much Money Can We Waste?

Congress is always looking for ways to cut spending and save money…..Dems have their way and Repubs have theirs……and the two save very little and what they do save they quickly find ways to piss it away…….instead of facing reality they always seem to look for the grand schemes and overlook the obvious…….

Here is one useless waste that could be solved easily……..

Ammunition worth $1.2 billion, much of it still usable, is going to go up in smoke because the Pentagon is using antiquated inventory systems and different service branches can’t share data effectively, a Government Accountability Office report says. Despite decades of trying to develop a single database, only the Army uses the standard Pentagon system, while the Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps have their own systems, resulting in huge amounts of waste as excess ammunition piles up in one service branch while another buys fresh supplies, according to the report obtained by USA Today.

Billions of dollars could be saved if the Pentagon makes some “common-sense improvements to how it manages ammunition,” says Sen. Tom Carper, chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. “Despite years of effort, the Army, Navy, and Air Force still don’t have an efficient process for doing something as basic as sharing excess bullets,” the Democrat says. The Pentagon, which manages a stockpile of around $70 billion in ammunition, said in a statement that there is clearly a need to “automate the process” and it will be made a priority in future.

Governmental Efficiency?  sounds like an oxymoron to me….how about you?

And then there is the big problem in Afghanistan….no not the Taleban…..the problem would be the opium trade……..yes, we fight drugs but at what cost?  Easy peasey……..

There are plenty of failures to focus on in Afghanistan, but while they usually center around the calamitous US military occupation, another US war in the country, the “war on drugs” continues apace, with similarly feckless results.

12 years into this war, and with $7.5 billion spent, the latest figures (PDF) from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) show remarkable consistency, as the US continues to throw money and manpower at poppy eradication and appears to have no real impact on cultivation or export.

2013 saw a record 2,090 square km of Afghanistan used for poppy cultivation, and the grand US eradication program managed to destroy roughly 70 of them, so roughly 3.5% of the overall total.

That’s not even slowing them down, as poppy production in 2012 was 1,540 square km, so the US eradication isn’t even putting a meaningful dent in the rate of growth of the cultivation, one of the few viable crops for many Afghan farmers.

UN estimates put the value of the crop at around $4 billion by the time it leaves the country, with farmers receiving around $1 billion of that and the rest going to the assorted bribes needed to keep the crop moving. $4 billion amounts to about 20% of Afghanistan’s nominal GDP.

Absent in this is another point about the main failing war in Afghanistan. Production of opium poppies in Afghanistan, though never this high in modern history, was actually virtually nil in 2001, when the Taliban was being feted by DC drug warriors for its brutally effective crackdown on cultivation. 2014 still has most of the brutality, but none of the effectiveness, and the US seems unable to even remotely replicate the Taliban’s “success” on this front.

Just two examples of money spent with no return on investment…….

Can you think of any other ones we could add to this list?