This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Author: Hondo

  • Ever Wondered Just How Bad You’re Getting Screwed by Social Security?

    As I’ve previously noted, most folks approaching retirement age probably have already figured out that they’re gonna get screwed by Social Security – e.g., that they will get less value back in benefits than they paid in in taxes.  But that’s only part of the issue.

    You’re also not going to own a damn thing.  Your benefits are completely dependent on the whims of Congress; there is no contractual relationship between you and Social Security.  If Congress decides to cut your benefits in half because of future financial difficulties, well, sorry.  That’s life, and you’ll have absolutely no legal recourse other than to vote for a different Congressman.  And that  may not make any difference.

    However, spreadsheets and the Internet are wonderful things.  I’ve developed a calculator that lets you see precisely what Social Security has cost you compared to a private retirement plan; you can download it here if you like.  So now you can see – if you’re so inclined – just how badly you’re getting screwed by Social Security.

    This calculator allows you to input your income history.  It then assumes that the employee and employer contributions for OASDI  – the Old Age Survivors and Disability “Insurance” part of Social Security taxes –  are each then invested in an actual retirement account owned by the recipient, with returns based on the DJIA.  (And no, insipid – the fact that the Social Security Administration and other elements of the Federal government continue to lie through their teeth and call it “insurance” doesn’t alter reality.  Social Security is not and never has been insurance.  There’s no contract, no policy, no premiums.  Those OASDI deductions from your paycheck  are taxes, not premiums; Social Security is a PAYGO income-transfer program and is not any form of retirement savings program or insurance policy.)

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  • Update on Former AFRICOM Commander Brouhaha

    For those interested:  a redacted copy of the DoD IG Report of Investigation relating to GEN Ward is available.  I’ve only read the first 30 pages or so – but let’s just say that it doesn’t present the General in a particularly good light.  YMMV.

    No, the misconduct doesn’t rise to the level of that shown by COL Johnson.  Then again, tawdry bigamy cases are fairly rare.  And total dollar amount wasted by GEN Ward appears to have been much higher.

    It’s sad to see things like this happen, and I’m not naive enough to think it’s anywhere near the first time a 4-banger has pulled something like this.  But at least this time it appears there will be some consequences for doing so.

     

    (Edited by Hondo to add:  I’ve now read the rest of the report, and it’s not good either.)

  • Not the Sharpest Tool in the Shed

    Psst!  Wanna make some easy money?  Here – just change the numbers on this voucher, collect the higher amount, pay out the lower, and pocket the difference!

    Yeah – someone actually tried that one.  And it was someone who really should have known better.

    Former Army CPT Abuzuike O. Ukabam, to be precise.  He deployed to Iraq in 2006.  While deployed he was a pay agent for local contractors.

    According to a recently-unsealed indictment Ukabam made a few dollars on the side while he was deployed.   If you consider around $110,000 a few dollars, that is.

    Seems Ukabam was paying contractors, upping the numbers on the invoice submitted to DFAS, and pocketing the difference.  I guess he never heard of a contract close-out – or an audit.  Or maybe he figured he’d be long gone before anyone figured things out and that no one would be able to find him when they did.

    He figured wrong.  Ukabam was arrested in Los Angeles and is expected to be returned to Houston, TX, for trial.

    Dumbass.

  • A Good News Story from New Jersey

    Twelve sets of unclaimed cremated remains of deceased New Jersey veterans were buried with military honors today at the Brigadier General William C. Doyle Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Wrightstown.   Most had served in the two World Wars, but one set of remains dated from the Mexican Border Campaign.

    The burial was arranged by a group called Mission of Honor.  Since 2009, the group has reunited 170 sets of unclaimed veterans’ remains with kin and has arranged the burial of the remains of 79 other veterans.

    We have a lot of . . . real pieces of work that end up “honored” here at TAH who hail from New Jersey.  As a result we tend to give New Jersey grief.

    But as this goes to show there are some good people in that state too.  Well done, folks.  Thanks.

  • Asylum for Assange

    It looks like our “good friend” Julian Assange of Wikileaks fame has found a new friend.  As in the leftist president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa.

    Reportedly, Assange has been offered “political asylum” by Ecuador.  He’s now hiding out in the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

    As a practical matter I’m not sure exactly what good this will do Assange.  Since he’s not an Ecuadorean citizen, I’m not sure Great Britain is under any obligation to honor any type of “diplomatic status” Ecuador might grant to Assange – or to recognize any “passport” granted him expeditiously by Ecuador (Assange is an Australian citizen, if I recall correctly).  Nor are they obligated to allow helicopter flights to/from the Ecuadorian embassy to any airport.  So there remains that pesky detail of getting from the embassy to any international airport in order to leave Great Britain.  Plus the fact that international airports in Great Britain are under British jurisdiction.

    Hey, if Assange wants to live the rest of his life at the Ecuadorean Embassy in London I guess that’s OK.  But given Assange’s reputed arrogance and “winning personality” I’m guessing the Ecuadoreans will tire of him fairly soon.

    Still, there could be advantages in Assange ending up in Ecuador.  I understand it’s easy to get lost in the jungle, or in the mountains, in parts of South America.  And those so lost often are never heard from again.

    I’d personally shed no tears if Assange ended up fertilizing trees in a South American rainforest or on some Andean mountainside.  But that’s just me.

     

  • 67 Years Ago Today . . . .

    Emperor Hirohito of Japan announced Japan’s surrendered in a radio address to the Japanese nation, ending World War II. The surrender was formalized on 2 September 1945 in the famous ceremony on the USS Missouri.

    Thanks, Dad. And thanks, Uncles Stan, Norb, Joe, and Bill.

  • Trouble in “Big Sister’s” Fiefdom

    Well, it looks like there may well be trouble in paradise. If you define “paradise” as being the Department of Homeland Security, that is.

    There may well be substance to recent allegations of a female “frat-house” environment and/or nepotism at the highest echelons of DHS. Additional witnesses apparently have come forward implicating Suzanne Barr, chief of staff for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, in having engaged in “lewd behavior”.

    Yeah, I know boys will be boys and girls will be girls and all that.  And I generally don’t really give the proverbial rat’s ass what consenting adults do in private on their own time, provided they don’t ask me to approve or somehow financially subsidize their shenanigans.

    But I do care about fair and equal treatment under the law.  Here we seem to have indications of possible serious wrongdoing by very senior people at DHS – wrongdoing that was both unlawful and blatantly discriminatory.  There are now two different lawsuits accusing multiple senior DHS officials as having engaged in discriminatory practices and/or lewd behavior to an extent which arguably constitutes a hostile workplace. And reportedly there are other witnesses to similar misconduct who have not yet been deposed.

    I think I’m seeing smoke.  And I remember an old saying that starts off something like, “Where there’s smoke . . . .”

    This also makes me wonder about a couple of other things. First: will our “liberal brethren” who’ve been campaigning for years for gender equality call for the wholesale firing of implicated DHS senior leadership – or will they ignore the whole matter or argue for leniency? I think we already know the answer if those accused here were male.  But they’re not.

    And second: will DoJ actually conduct a real investigation of these allegations to determine if there’s been a violation of civil rights and/or Federal employment law? Or will these allegations be ignored and/or swept under the rug – just like the Philadelphia NBPP election incident?

  • Kudos, Duffle Blog . . .

    . . . you’ve made the bigtime. The Army Times has you in a featured article on their website’s front page today.

    Well done.