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

Category: Government Incompetence

  • Ever Wondered What This Administration Would Do If US Forces Were Attacked?

    Well, we now have an answer.  Apparently Russian aircraft bombed one of our facilities in the Middle East last month.

    Twice.

    So, what did we do?  Apparently, we sent Vladimir Putin et al another “strongly worded protest” concerning Russia’s behavior.

    Seriously.

    After this, I’m thinking that the current administration’s self-assessment of “Most xxxxxxxxxxxxx Administration in history” may well be close to correct.  But in my view, for it to be truly accurate you need to replace xxxxxxxxxxxxx with a different word than they used in describing themselves.

    After all:  “transparent” isn’t a synonym for either “incompetent” or “cowardly”.

  • Even Stevie Wonder Saw This Coming

    Remember that Iranian Nuclear Deal?  You know, the one that would convince Iran to give up its nuclear ambitions via the “Kumbaya Principle”?  That agreement that was so good it had to remain classified so that the American public wouldn’t know what their leadership was signing up to do?

    Well, the German domestic Intelligence agency recently released a report concerning Iran.  Here’s the BLUF:

    . . . . Iran has a “clandestine” effort to seek illicit nuclear technology and equipment from German companies “at what is, even by international standards, a quantitatively high level.” The findings by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Germany’s equivalent of the FBI, were issued in a 317-page report last week.

    So much for “give up its nuclear ambitions”.  I guess the        gang of rank, naïve amateurs and idiots in DC        current Administration never got the memo explaining that the “Kumbaya Principle” is a religious and/or fantasy concept not generally applicable to foreign relations.

    In other “good news”, the same German report indicated that over 1,000 associates of terrorist groups backed by Iran are also living in Germany.  It further goes on to opine that some may be “working on behalf of Iran and other terror-sponsoring states.”

    Gee – ya think?

    So how is Iran funding this effort, you ask?  Well, the nuclear agreement released $100 billion in financial assets that had been frozen after the Iranian Revolution to Iranian control.

    Money is fungible.  You can probably figure it out from there.

    At least Esau got dinner (the proverbial “mess of pottage”) when he sold out.  All the current Administration seems to have gotten when it sold out US security is an “agreement” that even Stevie Wonder could see was worthless and would soon be broken.

    And the American public still doesn’t know what else in in that agreement.

    Wonderful.  Just freaking wonderful.

  • “Refugees of Genocide?” Hardly.

    Well, we have a bit more info about the demographics of those Syrian “refugees” admitted to the US (with “thorough screening”, of course) over the last several months.  And the numbers are . . . interesting.

    In March, the US government “determined . . . that abuses carried out by ISIS (sic) against Christians and other minorities in areas under its control constitute genocide.”  That, presumably, was one reason for the        inane decision by that group of naive fools in charge      Administration’s recent decision to        “open the floodgates, security be damned”       relax policy concerning Syrian “refugee” admissions.

    So, that means the majority of refugees being admitted are Christians or other minorities, right?  I mean, those are the groups being persecuted by Daesh – so wouldn’t they get priority in admission?

    Short answer:  in your dreams, perhaps.  But not in reality.

    In June, 2,381 Syrian “refugees” were admitted to the US.  Of that total, a whopping eight – or less than 0.336% – were Christians fleeing persecution.  The grand total of 9 others were “other minorities”:  eight who were non-Sunni Muslim, and one other individual who did not disclose their religious affiliation (if any).

    The other 2,364?  Sunni Muslim, just like Daesh.

    May was much the same.  During May, 1,069 Syrian “refugees” were admitted to the US.  Of those, 2 – that’s slightly more than 0.187% – were Christian; seven (nearly 0.655%) were of minority Muslim sects.  The remainder (1060, or just over 99.158%) admitted to the US in May were Sunni.

    Finally, the article has monthly demographic totals since last October.  Over the past 9 months, the US has admitted 5,186 such “refugees” – presumably fleeing religious persecution by Daesh.  Of that total, a whopping 20 were Christian; 67 were other religious minorities.  The rest were Sunni.

    Percentage-wise, that’s less than 0.4% Christian and less than 1.3% “other” religious minority that have been admitted by the US from Syria over the last nine months.  That means that over 99.3% of those admitted were Sunni Muslim – just like Daesh.

    “Refugees of religious-based genocide”?  Hardly.  When over 99% of those admitted aren’t even members of the groups supposedly being targeted for religious genocide, any claim that the US is admitting more refugees because they’re somehow “victims of genocide” is very obviously bullsh!t.

    CNSNews has a good article concerning the recent Syrian “refugees” admitted to the US.  It confirms what many of us have long suspected:  the current Administration is simply letting anyone who claims they’re a refugee come through the front door, NQA.  Any “screening” being done is merely for show – not for “go/no go” decisions on who’s to be admitted.

    Yeah, our legs keep getting wetter.  And it’s not raining.

  • Same Old Song and Dance, Part II

    Well, we have a new claim by our “illustrious regime” in DC.  They now claim that they know why their past attempts to support that mythical “moderate” Syrian opposition during the Syrian Civil War failed.

    They now claim that US support failed because it was sabotaged.

    Seriously.

    Specifically, the latest       attempt to grasp at straws         blatant propaganda designed to shift blame         claim is that CIA  aid to those mythical “moderate” Syrian rebels was diverted by “dirty Mideast intel”.   Allegedly, Jordanian intelligence redirected a substantial part of the aid intended for those mythical “moderate” rebels in Syria to Daesh.

    They also admit that corruption within the Syrian opposition was also partly to blame.  They had no choice but to do that; that’s already too well publicly documented.

    Why would Jordan do that, you ask?  Well, as the story goes:  because “Jordan’s biggest enemy is anything Shia” – and Daesh was opposing Iran.

    Gee.  A foreign nation looking out for its own interests.  Ya think that might happen on occasion?

    And corruption within the shadowy world of intel?  Oh, no! That implies that intel is sometimes a “dirty” endeavor!  This is big news!  Stop the presses!

    Hmm.  Ya think that maybe corruption might happen on occasion too?  Especially in the Middle East?  Or in the shadowy world of intel?

    At the risk of sounding “insensitive”:  both of those possibilities are so obvious that even Stevie Wonder can see them.

    These        inane tall tales        dubious claims by the Administration IMO show one of two things.  First, and IMO most likely:  they’re simply dissembling in an attempt to redirect blame for failure.

    And second:  if by some miracle that’s not the case and they’re telling the truth, then this fiasco shows a near-childlike level of incompetence and naïvety.  I mean really:  given how “steadfastly” we’ve supported our allies recently, did they really not expect Jordan to “look out for number one”?  Were they so foolish that they disregarded the possibility of corruption in pretty much ANY organization in the Middle East?

    And to add insult to injury:  either way,  they’re also throwing a valuable ally “under the bus” in the process.  We seem to have gotten quite good at that lately, too.

    GMAFB.  If they didn’t take measures to detect/correct diversion of support to support an ally’s agenda and limit corruption, then IMO they are literally incompetent fools.  But given what I’ve seen in the past from this Administration, I can easily believe that could well be the case.

    Hell, given this        ridiculously naïve and grossly incompetent clown krewe running the show        Administration I personally believe both deliberate mendacity and abysmally naïve incompetence played a part in creating this latest fairy tale.  No, I don’t have proof that’s the case.  But it simply fits.

    Once again, I think my leg’s wet.  And it hasn’t started raining yet.

  • About That Recent Fire in Los Angeles . . . .

    Last Monday, a vacant building was intentionally torched in Los Angeles. Some homeless people were in it at the time.

    Five of them died.

    The police have a suspect in custody: Johnny Sanchez. Authorities believe he intentionally set the fire with intent to kill.

    Sanchez is a Honduran citizen. He’s 21 years old.

    Sanchez was arrested for illegally crossing the US border in 2012. At the time, Sanchez was released by authorities because he “had no previous criminal history.”

    Instead of being immediately deported to Honduras, Sanchez was placed “under supervision” and ordered to report to authorities regularly. He did – for a while. But he stopped doing that in 2014.

    In January of this year, Sanchez was arrested again – this time on suspicion of domestic violence. He was arrested again twice afterwards on suspicion of drug possession.

    So, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement began deportation proceedings after one of those arrests, right? After all: Sanchez was arrested three times this year for serious crimes, and had also been in violation of the conditions that allowed him to remain in the US (periodic check-in with authorities) for between one and two years.

    Well . . . that would be a “no”.

    Why not, you ask? When asked here’s what ICE had to say:

    Immigration and Customs Enforcement never started the process of deporting him, spokeswoman Virginia Kice said, adding that the reason why was unclear. She told the newspaper it’s ICE policy “to focus on individuals who pose a public safety threat.”

    Sanchez reportedly set the arson fire which killed five Monday after a fight with some of those killed. As noted above, authorities think his intent in setting the fire was to kill.

    Hmm . . . let’s see. Sanchez quit reporting in to authorities as ordered close to 2 years ago, as was required for him to remain in the US. He’d been arrested for domestic violence, and twice had been arrested for drugs, since the beginning of the year. Based on all of that, I’d certainly say Sanchez that damn well did seem to pose a threat to public safety. But apparently ICE felt he didn’t.

    I must have it wrong, though; ICE must have been right about Sanchez not posing a threat to public safety. After all: they apparently didn’t lift a finger when Sanchez was arrested for domestic violence after being “on the lam” for well over a year, then was arrested twice again for serious criminal offenses. But ICE assures us they focus on those illegal immigrants who “pose a public safety threat.” And we know that ICE cares first and foremost about the safety and security of the US public, and that they work tirelessly to protect us.

    I have to wonder, though, if the proverbial “man on the street” would would agree with ICE regarding their hands-off treatment of Sanchez. Or what the next-of-kin of those killed in the fire Sanchez started might say concerning the situation.

     

    (Hopefully the sarcasm in the next to last para of the above was obvious. If it wasn’t, you might want to have your sarcasm detector checked by a competent repair shop.)

  • More “Words of Wisdom” About Syria from the State Department

    Well, our “esteemed” Department of State is at it again.  And as usual, they are being “farsighted, and protective of US national interests”.

    Yeah, if you couldn’t tell – that last was sarcasm.

    Apparently a largish number of State Department officials – 51, to be precise – have signed something called a “dissent channel cable”.  This document, apparently intended for the POTUS and his senior advisors, calls for the current        gang of fools in charge      Administration to direct “targeted military action” against the Assad regime in Syria.

    Yeah, that’s the ticket.  More pinprick strikes and/or drone operations.

    I hate to break it to our “esteemed” DoS officials, but that train left the station years ago.

    Back in 2012-2013, we stood by and did nothing at the beginning of the Syrian civil war.  We then gave lip-service and a totally ineffective pittance of support to the then-existent moderate Syrian opposition (and wasted literally hundreds of millions doing so).  As a result, al Qaeda and Daesh co-opted the Syrian opposition; they now own virtually all of it.  There are effectively no freaking Syrian opposition moderates left.

    Moreover, in the last year or two Russia has moved in to Syria big time.  Yeah, that’s right – this Administration’s hesitant, bumbling inaction has allowed Russia to move back into the Middle East directly for pretty much the first time since Egypt kicked them out in the 1970s.  Now, any “targeted military action” against the Syrian government is virtually a lock to involve striking forces belonging to their Russian allies as well.  That wouldn’t have been the case if we hadn’t sat on our hands and scolded at the beginning.

    In short, we’ve fornicated Fido well and thoroughly here.  There are no good solutions left that promote US national interests.

    Don’t believe me on that last?  Well, consider:

    • If we stand by and do nothing, Assad continues to kill off his own people while fighting al Qaeda/Daesh forces – with firm Russian and Iranian support.  Russia will demand compensation for helping, probably in the form of a long-term presence in bases in Syria.  Iran may well do the same.  That’s bad, but it’s also IMO probably the best option we’ve got now.

    • If we intervene with “targeted strikes”, we hit Russian and Iranian forces along with Syrian forces.  The Iranians may well not be able to react.  But does anyone here think the Russians won’t shoot back?  Then, we either go in with both feet or back down.  If we go in with both feet, how does the possibility of “simultaneous war with Russia and Iran” sound?  Is Syria worth that?

    • Even if by some miracle the Russians and Iranians leave, we’re still screwed.  Let’s say we help the Syrian opposition take out the Assad regime, and the Syrian opposition takes over.  That opposition now appears thoroughly dominated by al Qaeda and Daesh.  If you think they’ll willingly let a “moderate regime” friendly to the West take power, you’re naïve as hell.  So backing the Syrian opposition and winning now probably sets up an al Qaeda or Daesh Caliphate in Syria, either immediately or within a couple of years.  (Remember – after the Iranian Revolution, Khomeini didn’t immediately take power.  It took several months for Khomeini to throw out the remaining Iranian moderates under Bakhtiar and Bazargan – who initially held power – and establish his dictatorial theocracy.)

    Anyway:  initially, we had options.  Now, we really have no good options.  So jumping in militarily with both feet – unless we’re willing to conquer and occupy, possibly after fighting a war against both Russia and Iran – makes absolutely no sense at all.

    . . .

    Yeah, the Syrian Civil War is nasty.  Lots of innocents are dying.  But there aren’t any “good guys” left to support that have a snowball’s chance in hell of winning.  We get involved, it’s a lock that all we’ll do is p!ss away more US lives and dollars to no good end.

    We had our chance about 4 years ago to make a difference in Syria.  We screwed up by-the-numbers then, and the chance is no longer there.

    But here, we picked the worst possible course of action. We took actions that destabilized Syria (see “Spring, Arab”) – then failed to follow through, leaving those we encouraged twisting in the wind and leading indirectly to the rise of Daesh. Hell, letting Assad continue to rule Syria with an iron hand would have cost fewer innocents their lives, kept Russia “on the outside looking in”, and likely marginalized Daesh or prevented their formation entirely.

    I’ve maintained all along that we had no “dog in this fight”; that was true IMO from day one. Assad is a true bastard, but many if not all foreseeable potential alternatives and outcomes of his overthrow then were no better for the US. Now, barring a literal miracle all of those alternatives are IMO far worse than his continued rule.

    Sometimes, “Better the Devil ye know . . . . “ is damn good advice.

  • Yet More ObamaPhone “Good News”

    I’ve written previously about the “Lifeline” program, AKA “ObamaPhones”.   Short version:  the program today is poorly conceived, badly run, and rife with fraud.  You can see my previous articles about it here and here.

    Well, here’s some more news about Lifeline.  And as before – if you pay taxes or pay for your own phone service – and thus pay for stupid crap like this – the recent news concerning the program kinda . . . sucks.

    For those who might not be familiar:  “Lifeline” provides subsidies so that “low income” households can have a phone for emergency essential communications.  The program is theoretically limited to one phone per “independent economic household (IEH)”.

    When the program was landline-only, that was fairly easy to enforce.  Then in 2005, cell phones were allowed under the program.

    Now, Stevie Wonder could have seen that was a bad idea from a fraud perspective.  But the program was changed to allow cells anyway.

    Theoretically, Lifeline enrollees are still required to give a valid address.  Also theoretically, multiple enrollments at the same address are a “no go”.  Except . . . they’re not, really.

    You see, telecom companies are allowed to “override” the IEH (e.g., one subscriber per address) requirement.  The override is designed to be used for places like homeless shelters, where conceivably multiple persons who qualify might reside.

    However, recent reporting from telecom companies participating in indicates that over 1/3 of Lifeline subscribers last year used this “override” – e.g., a second (or third/fourth/fifth/whatever) line at an address already having a Lifeline subscriber.  And there’s no telling how many more covert fraudulent ones were issued (multiple subscribers in one household, but not all using their actual residence address on their application).

    There is no way in hell all of those overrides were legit.  I’d be surprised if even 2% of them were.

    It gets even better.  In one company’s case – Total Call Mobile – 99.8% of their Lifeline subscribers were approved using the override (the overall average was 35+%).  Yeah, Total Call Mobile is the same company that recently got fined $51M by the FCC for program violations – and as I noted here, likely still came out nearly $40M ahead on the deal.  Nice gig if you can stomach the work, I guess.

    Further, employees at Total Call Mobile said they learned how to do that from employees at other companies participating in the program.  So some of the other Lifeline providers are doubtless doing the same, albeit certainly not on the same scale.

    The aggregate cost of this apparent fraud to taxpayers?  Try around $476M annually – or nearly half a billion dollars.  And that’s likely a low estimate.

    The Washington Examiner and Washington Free Beacon each have recent articles describing this latest Obamaphone fishiness.  They’re worthwhile reading, even if they might turn your stomach.

    We need to make major changes to this fraud-filled abomination of a Federal program.  IMO it needs to go back to landline-only – pronto.

  • Just Another Refugee Making A Living In the USA

    Just Another Refugee Making A Living In the USA

    Yusuf Abdi Ali
    Isn’t it great?  We have a wonderful  story today from the DC Metro area.

    It’s a story of a man fleeing chaos in Somalia.  He moved to America decades ago, around the time that Somalia descended into chaos.  He’s now a lawful permanent resident.  He’s made a wonderful life for himself here in America.

    In fact, he’s been working as a security guard at a DC area airport for several years – Dulles, to be precise.  If you’ve flown in/out of Dulles in the past few years, there’s at least a small chance you’ve seen him inside the security perimeter at that airport.

    Sounds nice, doesn’t it?  Heartwarming, even.

    Until you find out that the man involved – Yusuf Abdi Ali – is a former official of the brutal Mohamed Siad Barre regime in Somalia.  He was named in 2006 as a defendant in a lawsuit alleging serious human rights violations – specifically, of overseeing torture, as well as personally conducting it.  The acts Ali has been accused of committing may well qualify as war crimes under both US and international law.

    And it gets even better.  Apparently the US government has been aware of the allegations against Ali for “years”.  However, per his employer somehow Ali passed all required security background checks to work at Dulles.  He was only recently suspended from duties and placed on administrative leave.

    Fox News has an article giving more details.  IMO it’s worth reading.

    But don’t worry.  We’ve got a good handle on refugee vetting, and on controlling who is allowed entry into the USA!