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

Category: Government Incompetence

  • Read ‘Em and Weep

    Isn’t it great that the world is so safe and peaceful these days?

    Army has fewest active-duty soldiers since 1940, report says

    I hope the sarcasm in the intro above was obvious.  Gee thanks, Mr. President.

  • More “ObamaCare” News

    Well, we have some more news about that       Plainly Pathetic Abominable Collection of Asininity       Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, AKA “ObamaCare”.  And as is usual, the news isn’t all that good for the US taxpayer.

    First, here’s an Item I apparently overlooked previously.  Remember those “non-profit cooperatives” that were supposed to provide much of ObamaCare’s insurance coverage?  Remember that as of last October, nearly half of them had folded?

    Well, about a month ago more info was released about just how badly those cooperatives did, financially, in 2014 and 2015.  (Short version:  they lost their butts.)

    By March, the number of failed cooperatives was up to 12.  These cooperatives lost $376 million in 2014.  In 2015, their losses are estimated at $1 billion.  And they apparently still owe hospitals and doctors around $1 billion as well.

    The “rest of the story”?  Well, the Federal government apparently loaned cooperatives around $2.4 billion collectively at start-up.  The 12 failed cooperatives apparently still haven’t repaid $1.2 billion that the Federal government loaned them.

    Gee.  That means one of two things will happen.  Either we the taxpayer will eat the cost of those loans –  or their parent firms will raise future premiums to cover losses as well as repaying them.  Which means that you and I will pay for them through increased premiums in the future.

    Wonderful.  Just freaking wonderful.

    In fact, it appears that the higher premiums may take effect later this year.  The new 2017 “ObamaCare” premiums are expected on 1 November.  Premiums announced in November (for next year) are expected to show rather marked increases over last year’s ObamaCare exchange premiums.

    How much?  Well, I’m not sure – but last year, premiums were up an average of “only” 8% or so, and the current       gang of fools in DC who foisted this idiocy on the American public         Administration touted that fact as “good news”.  I’m not really sure why, though – in contrast, CPI inflation for 2015 was 0.1%.  (Yes, that is a zero to the left of the decimal point.)

    Gee – losing money out the wazoo, billions in outstanding debts and loans, and substantial future price increases virtually guaranteed.  What’s not to like?  (smile)

    Sheesh.  We need to kill this idiotic mistake of a law posthaste.  Then burn its corpse until its ash, mix the ashes with quicklime and water, and dump the resulting slurry down an abandoned mine shaft.  Then dynamite the mine shaft so it collapses.

  • Russia’s Military Gets “Frisky”, Part 4

    Well, it looks like Russia’s military is flexing it’s muscles again. Or maybe Vladimir Putin just decided he wanted to flip off the POTUS again.

    Damn. I should know better than to write something like the previous paragraph.  It’s redundant as hell, isn’t it? (smile)

    Anyway: it appears that for the second time in about 2 weeks, a Russian SU-27 has “barrel-rolled” a US recon aircraft operating in international airspace.

    This time, though, the Russian jet “only” came within 100′ of the US aircraft. During the last barrel-roll incident, the Russian aircraft’s closest approach to ours was approximately 50′.

    OK, Mr. President. Vlad has given you the finger with both hands yet again, then immediately afterwards mooned you. But he’s apparently “branching out” a bit now. One of his aides must have suggested he insult you in German. This time I’m pretty sure he yelled “Deine Mutter arbeitet auf Vierzig Deutsche Mark-Straße, Arschloch!” as he was mooning you.

    Oh, and did I mention that it appears increasingly probable that Syrian-Russian operations to recapture the city of Aleppo – currently held by Syrian rebels – now appear imminent? That is, if they haven’t already begun?

    Your move, Mr. President. Time to get your “he-man war hero” SECSTATE working on another “strongly-worded diplomatic statement” or two.

    Or maybe you could simply ask him if you could borrow Terresa’s cojones .  Maybe if you did that you could start acting, well, Presidential.

  • “It’s the High Taxes and Over-Regulation, Stupid.”

    Well, new figures for US economic growth are out.  And it turns out last quarter was not a good one.

    The US economy’s annualized real growth rate for the first quarter of this year?  Try a whopping 0.5%.  Yes, that’s a ZERO to the left of the decimal point.  And yes, that’s the annualized growth rate.

    That’s the slowest quarterly annualized real growth rate we’ve seen for the US economy in 2 years.

    The US economic real growth rate was so low last quarter, it was nearly 30% less than expected.  And it was only expected, based on midpoint projections, to be 0.7% – which is itself abysmally bad.  It also marked the third straight year with a p!ss-poor beginning, economic-growth wise.

    This follows on the heels of a rather anemic fourth quarter of last year.  During that quarter, in real terms the US economy grew at a “massive” 1.4% annualized rate.

    It seems a cinch to say that we won’t see 3% real growth this year overall.  So far, the current       gang of economic idiots screwing things up by-the-numbers in DC      Administration has yet to see a single year with US real economic growth at or above an annual rate of 3%.  That makes the Obama Administration the first US Presidential Administration in history to fail to deliver even a single year of 3% growth.  In fact, if the economic growth rate for this year doesn’t reach 2.67% (kinda doubtful at this point IMO), the Obama Administration will be the fourth-worst  Administration in US history, economically speaking.

    If current projections hold, the 8 year average for US economic growth under this      gaggle of economically naïve tools      Administration will be around 1.55% – if they’re lucky.  If the economy doesn’t improve dramatically with respect to last quarter during the rest of this year, they won’t even see that.

    When the US economy doesn’t grow, well, thinks kinda suck for everyone.  For comparison, during the Reagan Administration, the 8 year AVERAGE for real economic growth was 3.5% per year.  Gee – ya think maybe that had something to do with why it’s perceived as “good times”, economically speaking?

    Predictably, the POTUS doesn’t appear to have a clue why the economy is growing so slowly, and keeps touting “low unemployment”.  Well, Mr. President, let me provide you a clue or two – free.

    Here’s yer first clue.  The unemployment rate is dropping for two reasons.  First, it’s dropping because people who want to work are becoming discouraged and ceasing to look for work.  And second, your inane policies regarding social welfare programs have removed many consequences for doing so.  Here’s one example:  you still haven’t reinstated Clintoon’s work requirements for SNAP (AKA food stamps) eligibility since you suspended them in 2009.

    When a recovery begins, the economy starts consistently growing again at a strong rate – typically a real annual growth rate of 3% or higher.  When that happens, people will start looking for work again – which means the unemployment rate will spike.  And the labor participation rate, a much better overall measure of economic health than unemployment, will start to rise consistently.

    Right now, we’re still in Carter Administration territory on the latter.  And since we haven’t seen a spike in unemployment yet, any claims that we’re “in an economic recovery” today . . . are bullsh!t.

    Now, for the second clue.  Regarding why the economy isn’t growing – see the title of this article.  Have someone explain it to you if you don’t “get it”.

    Sheesh.  I will be so damn glad to see someone with a freaking clue about the economy running the show in DC.  At least Slick Willie seemed to know his butt from a hole in the ground there.

  • Russia’s Military Gets “Frisky”, Part 3

    I’m sure that everyone’s heard that earlier this week, the POTUS called Russia’s President, Vladimir Putin.  While he did not address the recent incidents where Russian military aircraft “buzzed” US ships and aircraft during the call, the POTUS apparently did ask Putin to “maintain the cease fire in Syria”.

    Well, it appears the POTUS now has his answer.

    Per a US defense official, Russia has moved the bulk of its forces in Syria to the vicinity of Aleppo.  Why?  The official further indicated an offensive to retake Aleppo from Syrian rebels “is poised to take place soon”.  Local fighting has apparently already resumed in the Aleppo area, and Russian bombing in support of Assad’s forces has been occurring since November – cease-fire or no cease-fire.

    I don’t think it’s exactly rocket science to figure out why Russian forces in Syria just relocated.

    US officials also report that “hundreds” of new Iranian troops are also now in Syria.  Given Iran’s past support for Assad’s regime, I’m guessing they’re probably not there to support the Syrian rebels.

    Now, about those “buzzing” incidents: while the POTUS and Putin didn’t discuss them during their PHONECON, they’ve also returned to the news this week. The Russian Ambassador to NATO, Alexander Grushko, met with the NATO-Russia council yesterday – for the first time in 2 years. Afterwards, Grushko publicly accused the US of trying to “intimidate” Russia by conducting naval operations with our allies in international waters in the Baltic. He then went on to say that Russia would take “all necessary measures” in response to future such encounters.

    Yep. Looks to me like Putin has once again given the POTUS the finger – with both hands – followed shortly afterwards by mooning.  But this time, I believe Putin shouted something in Russian just before “shooting the moon”.  The first two parts sounded something like “yob” and “ti-voy-you”, respectively.  Not sure I caught the last part correctly, but I think it sounded something like “Matt”.

    Your move again, Mr. President.

    My prediction:  look for yet another ineffectual but “strongly worded” diplomatic protest by the State Department after the Syrian-Russian offensive near Aleppo begins – and that’s it.  I’ll frankly be shocked if we do anything more than that.

    I wonder if Putin – or anyone else in his inner circle – has pulled a muscle or otherwise injured himself from laughing at us. I know their sides must ache terribly by now.

  • 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.

  • Yet More Idiocy at DHS

    Remember the San Bernardino shootings? You know, that cold-blooded terrorist massacre perpetrated by a US citizen and his foreign-born spouse?  The spouse who DHS allowed to enter the country in in spite of the fact that she’d made social media postings supporting violent jihad; where DHS didn’t bother even to check her social media posts because it was against DHS policy to do so; and who DHS never interviewed in person as required under Federal law before allowing them to immigrate?

    Well, looks like this one gets “curiouser and curiouser” still with respect to DHS’s actions.

    The two dead terrorists who perpetrated that attack got their weapons from a straw buyer – Enrique Martinez – who was a friend of the husband. The FBI determined this shortly after the attack.

    Martinez had a scheduled interview at the San Bernardino US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) office the day after the attack. FBI officials found out about that interview; they requested that their LE counterparts at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detain Martinez as a person of interest so that they could interview him about the matter.

    Unfortunately, that didn’t go too well.

    When the ICE agents went to the San Bernardino USICS office as requested by the FBI, they were refused entry. They were unable to detain Martinez.

    Yeah, you read that right.  The Federal personnel running that ICS office refused to allow Federal LE personnel acting at the request of the FBI to enter their facility and detain a person of interest in a terrorism case.

    Tell me that isn’t evidence of a seriously out-of-whack set of priorities.  In my book, when Federal immigration services personnel start ignoring requests from Federal LE to detain persons of interest in terrorist attacks something is seriously effed up.

    Fox News has an article with more details.  It’s worth reading.

    Sounds like “you got some ‘splainin’ to do”, Secretary Johnson.  Or maybe that should read “you got lots more ‘splainin’ to do”.

  • More IRS IT Data “Issues”

    To paraphrase a great man: “Well, there they go again.” And this time, while it indeed involves the IRS and their IT operations it doesn’t involve screwing with conservative nonprofit groups.

    Some time ago, the IRS entered into a questionable $2.2 million contract with a law firm. The law firm was to assist with IRS audit activities – but had little experience in handling IRS audit data, and was very expensive ($1000/hour billing rate). The contract was bad enough to draw Congressional interest – and could well have been both unnecessary and contrary to Federal law, which appears to restrict performance of IRS audit functions to government employees.

    The matter apparently became the subject of some form of litigation or investigation. As a result, a Federal judge ordered the IRS to preserve the hard drive used on the personal PC of the IRS’s former director of transfer pricing operations at the IRS Large Business and International Division– and individual named Samuel Maruca. Mr. Maruca (or one of his subordinates) apparently oversaw or influenced the contract in question.

    Do I really need to tell you what happened?

    Yeah, you guessed it. Contrary to the judge’s order, the IRS wiped the drive – last April, well after the judge had ordered it preserved.

    To me, it seems this means either the IRS’s IT folks are spectacularly incompetent – or someone is deliberately trying to hide something.  I can’t see any other plausible explanation for a drive ordered preserved by a Federal judge being wiped after it had been ordered preserved.

    But maybe that’s just me.  Feel free to draw your own conclusions regarding why the IRS did this.

    Oh, did I mention that this had happened before?  In March 2014, the IRS deleted “hundreds” of backup tapes containing an estimated 24,000 emails from Lois Lerner – after they’d been subpoenaed by Congress.

    But remember: this is the “most transparent Administration in history”.  So we’ll shortly be getting a simple, straightforward explanation regarding what happened here  – right?

    Yeah, right.  If you believe that . . . please come talk to me about buying this bridge.  I’ll make ya a great deal on it.