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

Category: Government Incompetence

  • What If The Government Shut Down…

    capitol -rainT

    …And No One Noticed?

    Government shutdown set to drag on with no deal in sight

    By , and

    Federal workers woke up to to a partial government shutdown Saturday that could last through Christmas or even the New Year, according to multiple congressional sources, despite the appearance of progress towards a deal late Friday.

    The gloomy outlook comes as one-quarter of the government entered shutdown mode at midnight, including nine Cabinet departments, several major agencies and roughly 800,000 federal workers who are impacted by the lapse in funding.

    Trump canceled plans to fly to his Mar-A-Lago resort Saturday, with it unclear if or when the president will join his family in Florida for the holidays. But the Capitol was largely quiet, with no meetings among House and Senate leaders scheduled and most lawmakers gone.

    “I don’t think we see anything major happening until after Christmas,” said one senior Republican aide. “Maybe on the 26th or 27th, we start seeing movement again.”

    The onus, congressional aides in both parties said, is on the Senate to find a way forward. Republicans in the upper chamber need nine Democrats to clear the 60-vote threshold to re-open the government, so Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) — in tandem with Trump — would have to make some sort of deal.

    Unless McConnell goes for the Nuclear Option, and passes the bill with a simple majority. That will be a tough sell among the Republican Senators, though, as several have stated they would vote against the rules change needed to invoke the option. If it did pass, it certainly would be used by the Dems when they get the upper hand some time in the future.

    As I went out and about today, I noticed pretty heavy traffic for a weekend, and the parking lots were full at the retail stores- Christmas shopping no doubt. The traffic lights worked as usual, there were no uniforms in sight, and every one was pretty civil and considerate. Government shutdown? No sign that I saw.

  • One Big Fustercluck

    Submitted by Skippy

    https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2018/12/07/air-force-failed-four-times-to-prevent-last-years-texas-church-shooting-dod-ig-now-reviewing-other-services/

    From the article:

    The Air Force could have prevented a former airman from buying a weapon and committing a mass shooting last year had investigators followed proper protocol, according to a Pentagon investigation of the incident released this week.

    The investigation casts doubt on the capabilities of Air Force Office of Special Investigations agents and the training of ordinary security forces airmen, according to the Defense Department Inspector General report, released Dec. 6.

    The findings, and a follow-up review across the DoD, could have implications across all the armed forces investigative arms.

    “We are currently conducting a follow-up review to assess the progress throughout the DoD in ensuring that all fingerprints required to be submitted to the FBI are in fact submitted,” DoD IG officials said. “This review will also assess whether DoD law enforcement agencies submit DNA to the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System, as well as criminal history data, mental health information, and sex offender information, as required.”

    On Nov. 5, 2017, former airman Devin Kelley shot and killed 26 people and wounded 22 others at the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Texas. After being shot by citizen responders, Kelley fled from the church in his vehicle and later died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

    Kelley was able to purchase a firearm from a federally licensed dealer even though he had a disqualifying conviction. – Article.

    The remainder of the story, which outlines the cascade of failures to follow up every time this investigation went further, is at the link.

  • Strasbourg Christmas Market Shooting: Three Dead, 12 Injured

    strasbourg shooting
    Three were killed and 12 injured in a shooting in the vicinity of the Christmas Market in the historic French city of Strasbourg Tuesday evening.
    By: Joshua Caplan and Oliver Lane

    The Associated Press reports of the latest on this ongoing hunt for the suspected Strasbourg attacker:

    “A senior French government official says that five people have been detained as police hunt for the man who attacked the Strasbourg Christmas market, but the gunman remains at large.

    Laurent Nunez, secretary of state for the interior ministry, said Wednesday on France-Inter radio that the attacker could have fled to neighboring Germany.

    He said that three people were killed and 13 injured, eight of them seriously. He denied reports of a police intervention at the city’s famed cathedral but said the search for the attacker is constantly evolving.

    Nunez said the assailant had been identified as a suspected extremist during his past stays in prison but said the motive for the attack remains unclear. A terrorism investigation was opened.”

    Aspects of Tuesday’s attack bear more than a passing resemblance to the 2016 Berlin Christmas market attack. The killer, a known radical named Anis Amri was under police surveillance only “sporadically“. After that attack, which saw 12 killed and maimed 100 at Berlin’s Christmas Market, Amri was able to escape police. He was fianlly shot dead in Italy.

    So here we go again, a known extremist murdering and maiming innocents at a Christmas festival shouting “Allahu Akbar” during his murderous spree. If these potential terrorists are known, why have they not been deported to somewhere hot and sandy, with a name that ends with -stan?

    The entire debacle may be read here at Breitbart News.

  • The Peasants are Rioting in Paris….

    The French are rioting over Macron’s increase in the carbon tax.

    https://www.atr.org/french-revolt-against-carbon-tax

    In France, diesel fuel is now at $8.20/gal and gasoline at $9.00/gal. The bulk of the price at the pump here is taxes, not fuel costs. Macron wants to increase the carbon tax in France to $63/tonne. There is no reason for it, other than his personal greed factor. It goes for absolutely nothing other than payola to IPCC and to line his pockets.

    From the article: The loudest and most famous voice from the weekend protest is that of Jacline Mouraud, a diesel owner from Brittany who has become the star of the yellow vest movement due to her YouTube videos and appearance on all major French news outlets.

    “You have persecuted drivers since the day you took office. This will continue for how long?” she said in a YouTube video that has millions of views. “You only need those taxes for new china in the Élysée palace or another expensive swimming pool for your private residence!”

    This seems to be a growing movement in France since 283,000 people in 2,000 locations rioted and burned stuff over it. I’m waiting to see how long it takes Macron to realize that  – well, the French generally hate him. But they voted him in over Marie LePen, and she warned them what would happen.

    The link to WUWT’s article is here: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/12/02/president-macrons-climate-change-fuel-tax-riots-continue-in-paris/

    It also appears that in Paris, some of the rioting is the work of groups closely resembling the antifas here this country. There is much damage in Paris, and Macron is ‘shocked’ about it.  Well, les Crapeaux had a chance to vote in Marine le Pen, but they went for this King of Disconnectedness instead. I wonder if he will offer the peasants cake to eat.

    It is not just in France that this tax-to-death attitude is going on. There is a proposed bill coming up to inflict a $55/ton carbon tax on us, the unsuspecting public.

    I’ve already discussed how a similar tax proposed by IPCC on my gas bill alone would cost me income I simply do not have.  I did the simple math to find out what this carbon so-called tax might cost me, the same as the IPCC’s carbon tax, which was a staggering $21,000 per month by 2030, based on cubic feet of natural gas usage.

    Converting therms to tons was easy enough. There is a site that does that. The result for me was 3.774892954361 tons in January 2018, which is about average for me. My January bill is usually $115 to $120, depending on the weather. The carbon tax is an incremental tax, meaning that it starts low but increases every year for five years to an unconscionable $55/ton, which in my case is $206.14, making my wintertime household gas bill $325.98, an amount that is unaffordable at best, and egregious at its worst.

    This proposed so-called tax is not meant to benefit any of us at the taxpaying end of the economic scale. It will simply go into a massive slush fund with an elaborate title that this bunch of tax-sucking slugs in Congress will be able to dip into at will.

    https://www.atr.org/details-horrible-carbon-tax-bill

    The real anti-growth economic impact for the USA is discussed here:  https://www.atr.org/study-shows-devastating-economic-impacts-carbon-tax

    From ATR:  A carbon tax will not be pro-growth. Most carbon tax scenarios reduce GDP for the entirety of the 22-year forecast period. 

    Better than break-even economic performance may not be possible unless revenue is devoted entirely to corporate tax relief. A lump-sum rebate results in lost GDP equal to between $3.76 trillion and $5.92 trillion over the 22-year forecast period.

    That is trillions, not millions or billions of dollars – trillions lost to this nonsense.

    If you want to drive a thriving economy into a profound economic Depression, you tax the living daylights out of it until it is squeezed dry. Keep raising taxes and before long, there will be no more taxes to be found. We had a revolution in this country a while back because George III imposed a Stamp Tax Act on everything that was printed, to squeeze colonists dry. We fought that, and won.

    Here’s something else that is disturbing: the Bill authorizes armed carbon tax enforcement agents:  The bill authorizes armed carbon tax enforcement agents to collect the new tax on energy used by Americans. As if customs enforcement doesn’t already have enough on its plate, the bill states:

    “The revenues collected under this chapter may be used to supplement appropriations made available in fiscal years 2018 and thereafter –

    “(1) to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, in such amounts as are necessary to administer the carbon border fee adjustment.”

    So, if you somehow don’t pay this energy tax into this slush fund, you’ll get arrested???? If it shows up on my gas bill, which is my only source of carbon, men with guns and badges are going to show up on my doorstep demanding money from me? Aside from this looney-tune proposal, this loudly smacks of Gestapo tactics to me.

    The true nature of this proposed tax is discussed at the links, but most egregious is the 2-child limit per household included in the language of the proposal.  Here it is, straight from the bill text:

    “A carbon dividend payment is one pro-rata share for each adult and half a pro-rata share for each child under 19 years old, with a limit of 2 children per household, of amounts available for the month in the Carbon Dividend Trust Fund.”

    The reasoning behind a limit of 2 children per household is not specified, not at all. Because it is poorly written, it can be read as a means of forcing population control on families, which is what the Chinese government has been doing for decades.

    You may want to call Florida Republican Congressman Francis Rooney at 202-225-2536 and ask him why he has signed onto this absurd and harmful Democrat tax proposed by Deutsch, which seeks to impose a tax that is nothing but a feed into a slush fund. You should also call your own Congress critters and tell them to vote against this bill. Or send them e-mails to that effect. And sounding angry about it, in a civilized way, is acceptable. It isn’t a sales tax. It is larceny.

    It is extremely necessary on the part of all of us to be aware of these vultures and give them as much room as possible to expose themselves for what they really are. Without awareness of them and their agenda, we will lose the very things we value most.

     

  • 1st Lt. Katie Blanchard seeks $3.5 Million

    1st Lt. Katie Blanchard seeks $3.5 Million

    We first wrote about Katie Blanchard HERE.   She has filed a $3.5 million case against the Army Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

    One year ago, an Army civilian who tossed a water bottle full of gasoline onto his supervisor and lit a match was sentenced by a judge to 20 years in prison for attempted murder.

    For the nurse who survived the attack, the fight is not even close to over.

    The Feres doctrine prevents service members and their families from suing the Defense Department in the event of injury or death, but for 1st Lt. Katie Blanchard, that is beside the point. In September, she filed a personal injury claim against the Army Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where she was working at Munson Army Health Center at the time of the September 2016 assault.

    “Is it okay for us to have gross negligence and zero accountability in the military? Because if you look at my case, that’s what it is,” Blanchard told Army Times in a Wednesday phone interview. “Zero accountability for the way they treated me and the things that they missed that will forever affect my life.”

    Blanchard, 28, is asking for just under $3.5 million to cover some of the costs of the permanent disabilities she faces, after more than 100 surgeries to date and an intense battle with post-traumatic stress.

    She had, for months before the Sept. 7, 2016, attack, warned her supervisors and security personnel at the hospital that she believed Clifford Currie, the civilian employee, would try to kill her. Their relationship had deteriorated over the previous year, as she tried to implement an administrative plan to get his work progress on track.

    A link to The Feres Doctrine is HERE.  Lt Blanchard had repeatedly tried to get her command to take action concerning her attacker.   I doubt Blanchard is perfect and from what I can gather seems to be more than capable of becoming a First Class Bitch at times.   After what she has been through…I can not say that I blame her in the slightest.

    While she’s fully insured with Tricare, she said she still fights constantly to get the treatments she needs. She has to fight for a temporary duty order to see specialists they don’t have at JBLM, or to fill a prescription for an extra-strength, non-irritating body moisturizer she applies daily just to be able to comfortably wear clothes and move around.

    They kept it stocked at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, she said, where she recovered from the initial attack in their specialized burn unit.

    “Here they’re like, ‘Nope, sorry, we don’t provide it,’ ” she said. “Well, it’s $20 for a tub of it, and I go through that every three or four days. This is not cosmetic. I don’t like just putting on a ton of lotion every day just to feel pretty.”

    “That’s for comfort,” was Tricare’s response, she said.

    So instead, she sleeps in a recliner in her basement after surgery, keeping herself in position with pillows that shift all night, waking up regularly to rearrange them.

    “Yes, you give me medical care, but how much of a fight do I want to do for that?” she said.

    The damages she’s seeking from Fort Leavenworth would cover those medical costs that are denied by Tricare, she said, as well as for child care for her sons while she’s in surgery and recovering, and her active duty officer husband isn’t available.

    “My husband is currently out in the field and then he’s deploying,” she said.

    Lt Blanchard deserves better than this.  I am not a big fan of those who file cases for money as if it will change the behavior of those who do not actually write the check…this is an exception.

    Please read the entire Article HERE.

     

     

     

     

  • Military to “Build that Wall” if Congress does not fund it.

    Military to “Build that Wall” if Congress does not fund it.

    President Donald Trump said Friday that he’s considering using military resources to finish construction of his long-promised border wall instead of relying on Congress to fund the project through the Homeland Security Department’s budget.

    He also wouldn’t eliminate the possibility of a government shutdown if Democrats continue to confound his efforts to appropriate money for the project on the U.S.-Mexico border.

    ‘We have two options,’ he told DailyMail.com aboard Air Force One as he flew from Billings, Montana to Fargo, North Dakota. ‘We have military, we have homeland security.’

    He was asked specifically about using the Army Corps of Engineers as a taxpayer-funded construction crew.

    The man has been fairly consistent about building this wall.

    “I will build a great wall — and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me –and I’ll build them very inexpensively. I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words.”  –  President Trump

    You know, I think the guy just might be serious.  Scuttlebutt is HERE. 

     

     

  • Justice to convene meeting on whether social media companies are ‘intentionally stifling’ free speech.

    Justice to convene meeting on whether social media companies are ‘intentionally stifling’ free speech.

    In a statement issued right after executives from Facebook and Twitter finished testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee, the Department of Justice (DOJ) also suggested that the platforms were running afoul of antitrust laws.

    “The Attorney General has convened a meeting with a number of state attorneys general this month to discuss a growing concern that these companies may be hurting competition and intentionally stifling the free exchange of ideas on their platforms,” DOJ spokesman Devin O’Malley said in a statement issued near the end of the congressional hearing.

    I can save them a bit of time and money, Of course they are thwarting a free exchange of ideas.   Those companies are not in the business of protecting Free Speech, they are in the business of making money and to that end…protecting their domination of the market.  I have several friends that stay Booked in Face Jail.  They probably deserve it simply for being on my “friends” list.  Those companies are all to quick to pull down the speech by Conservative leaning people.  The list of those that have had it happen grows every day.

    The DOJ’s move is the first sign of the administration taking concrete action to address alleged bias following President Trump’s public accusations against tech companies last week. It also comes at a time of tension between the president and his top law enforcement officer. Trump has repeatedly chastised Sessions over his decision to recuse himself from the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, faulting the attorney general in August for not taking control of what he sees as “corruption” at the Justice Department. And on Monday, Trump blasted Sessions on Twitter over recent indictments against two Republican congressmen.

    The announcement also signals that the Justice Department is paying attention to the growing movement to challenge Facebook’s and Google’s market power.

    I am not sure how they might apply Anti-Trust Law to stop all this.  Brighter minds than mine must be at work.  I can’t hate on them too much because The Book of Face is one of the primary sources of Stolen Valor evidence.  Without the blowhards posting all their bloviated bullshit our job would be much harder.

    The entire story is HERE.

     

  • DoJ to turn over “Fast and Furious” documents

    DoJ to turn over “Fast and Furious” documents

    The Hill reports that the Department of Justice will comply with a 2014 judge’s order to turn over documents regarding the failed Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ Operation Fast and Furious which armed Mexican cartels with more than two thousand firearms, some of which have turned up at crime scenes on both sides of the frontier, including the murder of U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry.

    The Justice Department, then run by Eric Holder, declined to provide documents on the program to Congress in 2012 and was held in contempt of Congress. Today’s decision ends six years of litigation with the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

    “The Department of Justice under my watch is committed to transparency and the rule of law. This settlement agreement is an important step to make sure that the public finally receives all the facts related to Operation Fast and Furious,” Sessions said in a press release.

    The Hill article fails to mention that Holder was also in contempt of a judge’s order to turn over the documents to Congress (the People’s representatives). From US News and World Report;

    A report by the Justice Department Office of Inspector General in 2012 found that neither President Barack Obama nor his attorney general at the time, Eric Holder, were aware of Fast and Furious until 2011. Nonetheless, as Holder refused to provide documents about the operation to Congress, he drew unrivaled scorn from GOP lawmakers, some of whom openly considered the rare step of pursuing impeachment proceedings against him. The House voted in 2012 to hold him in contempt.

    A federal judge in 2014 declined to uphold the contempt finding, calling the House’s motion “entirely unnecessary” but also ordering the Justice Department to produce documents to the committee.

    AG Holder refused to comply with the order. So AG Session is only complying with that judge’s order. I’m sure that it will be portrayed in the media as some sort of “pay back” to the Obama Administration by Trump.

    I remember when Obama and Clinton were saying that we needed more gun control laws to prevent guns from going to Mexico when the Obama Administration was actually facilitating gun shipments to Mexico, telling US dealers to look the other way while straw purchasers carried guns to the cartels.