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

Author: Hondo

  • Russia’s Military Gets “Frisky”, Part 2

    We’ve now seen what the current         group of spineless, fearful naifs screwing up by-the-numbers in DC        Administration elected to do regarding the recent buzzing of a US warship in international waters by Russian military aircraft.  Specifically, they told Russia, “That wasn’t very nice!” – by sending a diplomatic protest – along with publicly saying, in effect, “Please don’t do it again. That could have ended badly.”

    Well, it appears Russia has given us their reply.  Last Thursday, a Russian SU-27 “barrel-rolled” a US RC-135 operating in international airspace over the Baltic Sea.  The Russian aircraft reportedly came within 50 feet of the US aircraft while doing so.

    OK, Mr. President – this time, Putin has not only given the US the finger with both hands.  He’s also mooned the Statue of Liberty, too.  And he did both while shouting Russian insults.  Your move.

    Here’s my prediction, based on past examples of “leadership” from this       gaggle of feckless fools      Administration.  Look for another “strongly worded diplomatic protest” tomorrow or the next day, along with another meaningless public platitude or two from the SECSTATE.

    Sheesh.  Putin and his cronies must be about to p!ss their pants from laughing at us so hard.  And from my perspective, that’s not terribly funny at all.

     

  • Another Reason to Be Thankful You Live in the USA

    If you ever wanted another good reason to thank God you’re NOT an expresso-sipping, cheese-eating Metrosexual Euroweenie – here it is.

    Recently, a German comedian wrote a satirical and suggestive poem about a public figure.  He recited the poem on a German TV show.

    Unfortunately, in Europe their concept of freedom of speech (and of freedom in general) isn’t quite the same as ours.  The public figure was insulted – and requested a criminal investigation of the comedian be opened.

    Why?  It seems here that the public figure here was Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan – a foreign head-of-state.  And under an obscure provision of German law, that is not legal in Germany.  Specifically, insulting a foreign head-of-state violates Article 103 of Germany’s penal code.  And that “crime” carries a maximum penalty of 3 years in prison – or up to 5 years if it is deemed a “slanderous insult”.

    No, I’m not joking.

    On Ergodan’s request, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has approved initiation of a criminal investigation into the matter.   She’s also indicated she will “move to repeal the controversial and little-used Article 103 of the penal code” by 2018.

    Yeah, I’m sure the German comedian in question is just thrilled to hear about the latter.

    Logically, this should go over well in Berkeley and similar places.  After all, criminalizing free speech helps to create “safe spaces” where people are protected from “disturbing speech and ideas”.  But in the rest of the US . . . maybe not so much.

    Any American who doesn’t thank God daily that they are an American is a damned fool.

  • More ObamaPhone “Good News”

    I’ve previously written about the “Lifeline” program here at TAH, now commonly referred to as “ObamaPhones”.  Well, the program is back in the news.  And as was the case previously . . . it’s not exactly in the news for the right reasons.

    When I last wrote about the program around 2 1/2 years ago, it was riddled with fraud.  Indicators at the time were that the program’s fraud rate appeared to be about 40%.

    As you might recall:  the program is funded by fees collected by the FCC on telecommunications services.  Yeah, you’re reading that correctly:  that means you and I pay for it whenever we pay our phone or Internet service bill.  And since it’s effectively funded by a revolving “slush fund” collected from paying telecommunications users, the program doesn’t get that much visibility – or Congressional oversight.

    So, how are things 2 1/2 years later?

    BLUF:  the program still appears to be rife with fraud and abuse.  The FCC recently caught one of the program’s service providers – Total Call – internally duplicating sign-up records and collecting excess funds based on those duplicated records (as well as bypassing other program rules).  The FCC is asking Total Call to return around $9.7M worth of those improper fees, plus has assessed them a whopping fine.

    Gee, great!  That means the FCC is really “raking them over the coals”– right?

    Well, not really.  The FCC is indeed hitting Total Call for $51M – $9.7M to recover fees paid for duplicate claims, plus around $41.3M in fines.  But even including the fines, it appears the FCC will only recover a fraction of the total fees paid to Total Call for their duplicative and bogus claims.

    The nearly $10M in bogus fees referenced above represents what Total Call collected from the FCC for 2,587 duplicate claims.  The actual total of duplicate claims paid was 32,498.  The FCC apparently is simply going to ignore the other almost 30,000 bogus duplicate submissions – and recover nothing for those.

    Estimates are that the actual loss to the government due to all of those bogus claims was over $84M – not $9.7M.  That means the government is collecting less than 12% or so of what was wrongfully paid to Total Call.  Even including the fines, the FCC is only recovering around 60% or so of the actual loss.

    Gee – collect $84+M in bogus fees, then return $9.7M and pay $41.3M in fines.  Doing the math, that means Total Call is somewhere around $39M ahead.  Sounds like a real deterrent to future similar schemes, doesn’t it?

    But as bad as that is, that’s not the worst “stinker” here.

    The FCC recently voted to expand the “ObanaPhone” program (Lifeline) yet again.  On 1 April 2016, the FCC – in a 3-2 vote – approved expansion of the program to include 3G wireless broadband.

    Yeah, you read that right.  Now, not only with ObamaPhone users be able to “phone home” on the taxpayer’s dime – they’ll also have subsidized data services, too.  Can you say “web surfing”?

    But wait – I haven’t even told you the best part yet.  The issues with Total Call described above were known to the FCC in late March.  However, information concerning that apparent scam was not released to the public until after the FCC vote on whether to approve the broadband expansion on 1 April.  Further, FCC personnel – including the 5 FCC commission members – were told not to discuss the matter publicly until after the vote.

    Now, why might the FCC want to keep this under wraps until after they voted on the program’s expansion?  Well, “Avoiding public outcry and complaints” sounds like one rather obvious answer to me.  “Trying to ‘fly under the radar’ ” regarding the program’s expansion to include wireless broadband also comes to mind.

    However, we should be used to crap like this by now.  I mean, really:  based on the past 7+ years we should know to expect stuff like this from “the most transparent Administration in history”.

    The Washington Free Beacon has an excellent article that discusses the above.  Their article has more details on the about the FCC’s investigation; about Total Call and it’s checkered past history with the ObamaPhone (formally “Lifeline”) program; and the intentional hiding of the incident until after the recent FCC vote.  It’s IMO definitely worth a read.

    Sheesh.  This kind of crap simply needs to stop.  Yesterday.

  • Fatass Fuhrer’s Proxy Phallus Fails

    North Korea tested a missile yesterday (our time – the test occurred on 15 April in Korea).  The test was in honor of the 104th birthday of North Korea’s “eternal president”, Kim Il-Sung.

    The test was reportedly a failure.

    The missile tested yesterday reportedly used the same engine as the SLBM North Korea tested last year.  That earlier test also failed.

    No word on who ND:tBF, AKA the Dork of NorK AKA Ementaller-boi AKA Fatboy Kim, will have executed next to soothe his massive bulk’s irritated nerves.  However, since this was the same type of rocket engine that failed previously, I’d be very worried if I’d ever worked on designing/building/installing that engine.

     

  • “Today, the vast majority of Marine Corps aircraft can’t fly.”

    Fox News today has an article discussing USMC aviation readiness.  Bottom line:  not so good.  The article’s “money quote”:

    Out of 276 F/A-18 Hornet strike fighters in the Marine Corps inventory, only about 30% are ready to fly, according to statistics provided by the Corps. Similarly, only 42 of 147 heavy-lift CH-53E Super Stallion helicopters are airworthy.

    No, that’s not 100% of USMC aviation assets.  But it’s a big portion of them.  And if the article is accurate, well, . . . .

    Why?  Well, for pretty much the same reason as during the Carter Administration.  Then, we were just a few years post-Vietnam – and Carter cut the defense budget radically.  (To be fair, that began under Nixon and Ford – but continued bigtime under Carter).  Regarding similarities to the last 5 years or so . . . well, you do the math.

    I wasn’t USAF, nor was I in Army aviation.  However, I seem to remember folks in the late 1970s and 1980/81 making similar statements about USAF and Army aircraft readiness then.  And “hanger queens” weren’t exactly unknown among other types of military vehicles and/or weapons systems during that time frame, either.

    Looks like it’s, “Welcome back, my friends” – to the Carter Administration. But anyone with 3 or more working brain cells who isn’t a libidiot political apologist (and who hasn’t been living in a cave or on the moon) already knew that.

    A second quote from the linked Fox News article provided the title above.  That linked article is IMO definitely worth a read.

    Just maybe wait to read it if your blood pressure is high today.

     

  • Four More From Pearl Identified

    DPAA has identified and accounted for the following four formerly-missing US sailors.

    • ENS Joseph P. Hittorff, assigned to the crew of the USS Oklahoma, US Navy, was lost at Pearl Harbor, HI, on 7 December 1941. He was accounted for on 6 April 2016.

    • CSK Herbert J. Hoard, assigned to the crew of the USS Oklahoma, US Navy, was lost at Pearl Harbor, HI, on 7 December 1941. He was accounted for on 4 April 2016.

    • FC1 Paul A. Nash, assigned to the crew of the USS Oklahoma, US Navy, was lost at Pearl Harbor, HI, on 7 December 1941. He was accounted for on 5 April 2016.

    • MM1 Alfred F. Wells, assigned to the crew of the USS Oklahoma, US Navy, was lost at Pearl Harbor, HI, on 7 December 1941.  He was accounted for on 7 April 2016.

    Sailors, rest your oars.  Our apologies that identifying you took so long.

    Rest now in peace, elder brothers-in-arms.

    . . .

    Over 73,000 US personnel remain unaccounted for from World War II; over 7,800 US personnel remain unaccounted for from the Korean War; and over 1,600 remain unaccounted for in Southeast Asia (SEA). Comparison of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from recovered remains against mtDNA from a matrilineal descendant can assist in making a positive ID for unidentified remains that have already been recovered, or which may be recovered in the future.

    DPAA’s web site now has what appears to be a decent “Contact Us” page. The page doesn’t have instructions concerning who can and cannot submit a mtDNA sample or how to submit one, but the POCs listed there may be able to refer you to someone who can answer that question – or may be able to answer the question themselves. If you think you might possibly qualify, please contact one of those POCs for further information.

    If your family lost someone in one of these conflicts and you qualify to submit a mtDNA sample, please arrange to submit one. By doing that you just might help identify the remains of a US service member who’s been repatriated but not yet been identified – as well as a relative of yours, however distant. Or you may help to identify remains to be recovered in the future.

    Everybody deserves a proper burial. That’s especially true for those who gave their all while serving this nation.

  • Russia’s Military Gets “Frisky”

    Well, it appears as if the Russian military is getting a bit more “frisky” these days.

    On 11 and 12 April, Russian aircraft reportedly performed aggressive maneuvers near the USS Donald Cook.  At the time, the US warship – an Arleigh Burke-Class guided-missile destroyer – was operating in international waters in the Baltic Sea.

    In one incident, a Russian SU-24 aircraft made numerous close approaches and low-level passes IVO the ship.  In a second incident the following day, a Russian KA-27 helicopter circled the ship multiple times; the ship was afterwards again “buzzed” multiple times by a pair of Russian SU-24s.  At least one of the passes in the latter incident was what appeared to be a “simulated attack profile”.

    The US Navy has released a press release about the incident.  It can be found here.

    OK, Mr. President – a guy named Vlad has just very publicly given the US the finger.  Now, what are you going to do about it?

  • Yeah, That’s Gonna Work Just Great

    I guess everyone has heard by now that we have a cease-fire in the Syrian civil war, albeit a rather shaky one.  And it also looks like       that gang of naive fools and clueless tools currently running the show in DC       the current Administration has a plan for what to do if that cease-fire doesn’t hold.

    Their “Plan B”?  Arm the “moderate” Syrian rebels, of course.

    Seriously.

    Gee.  Seems to me we already “saw that movie”.  We already tried one  program to train and arm those “moderate” Syrian rebels – a program with a $500M budget.  We also had other programs which provided alleged “moderate” Syrian rebel groups weapons and equipment.  Under the first program, we managed to train a huge army of those “moderate” Syrians.  I believe the total number trained was 5 or so – before we terminated the program because it was ineffective.

    Oh, and did I mention that at least some of the weapons and equipment we provided to those “moderate” Syrian rebels in the past were in turn later transferred by those “moderate” rebels to radical Jihadist organizations allied with al Qaeda?

    But fear not, Americans; it will be different this time around.  The plan will most assuredly work this time.  Our Fearless Leader’s and his minions say so!

    One description of insanity is repetitively doing the same thing over and over again while expecting a different outcome.  Perhaps someone should explain that to this      DC Clown krewe       Administration.

    Sheesh.  I will be so freaking glad when this nation again has adult leadership that knows the difference between its butt and a hole in the ground.