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

Category: Government Incompetence

  • Laissez le bon temps économique à rouler. Par la suite. Peut-être.

    Well, we have some more economic “good news”, courtesy of those       feckless fools and naive tools calling the shots in DC these days       savants managing the US government and economy.  We have a revision to last quarter’s GDP growth figures.

    A downward revision.

    Federal economists now estimate that the US economy grew at an annual growth rate of 2% during the period July through September 2015.  Since the current quarter is looking about the same, we’re looking at an average growth for the US economy of around 2.2% for the year.

    Moreover, this will be the 10th straight year that US economic growth has been below 3% for the year.  That means it will be the longest period of sustained slow growth since World War II.

    I don’t think I really need to tell anyone who’s been running the show in DC for the last 7 of those years – or which party had the majority in both houses of Congress in 2007 and 2008.

    But wait, there’s more!

    The US labor participation rate last month was 62.5% .  That’s lower than all but two months since October 1977 – which was back during Jimmy “Clueless” Carter’s “wonderful stewardship” of the US economy.  And those two months that had a lower US labor participation rate?  Those would be September and October of this year, where the labor participation rate clocked in at 62.4%.

    We’ve now seen the US labor participation rate at below 63% for 20 consecutive months.  You have to go back to the Ford Administration and the post-Vietnam/post-Watergate economic slowdown to see that.

    But we must be on the verge of something.  The current Administration has raised taxes, and is raising interest rates – things known to retard economic growth.  That should certainly keep things from overheating, economically-speaking.  Gotta make sure that growth doesn’t spiral out of control!

    Yeah, as a nation we’re just doing “oh so well” economically.  Thanks for “letting the good times roll”, Mr. President.

  • Wunderbare.

    Remember those two dead terrorist bastards who killed 14 and wounded 20+ in San Bernardino earlier this month? You know, the case where a US citizen went to a nation with a high level of support for radical Islamic terrorism; found himself a “bride”; and brought her to the US on a spousal visa?  The case where the terrorist “bride” apparently had made past posts on social media supporting violent jihad and indicating a desire to participate in same, but was admitted to the US anyway because checking her social media accounts during the visa approval process was against DHS policy?

    Well, sit down – it gets even “better”.

    When a US citizen wants to bring a foreigner to the US as a spouse, there is a existing requirement in Federal law that the two individuals must have met face-to-face at least once prior to that prospective spouse being granted a visa to enter the US.  The purpose of this requirement is to combat “sham marriage” rackets.

    Well, regarding our two dead terrorists . . . do I really need to spell it out?

    Yeah, you guessed it:  turns out there’s no real evidence that a face-to-face meeting ever happened prior to the spouse receiving her visa.  And it also appears that (1) INS noticed a lack of evidence for such a meeting, (2) asked for more information documenting that such a meeting happened, (3) got nothing . . . but approved her entry into the US on a spousal visa anyway.

    Further, there’s actually rather strong circumstantial evidence that such a meeting likely never happened.

    Fox has a decent story from a couple of days ago detailing the timeline and evidence.  It’s worthwhile reading.

    Oh, and remember the dead terrorists’ friend who acted as straw buyer for the weapons they used in their attack?  Turns out he was getting paid $200 a month for his “marriage” to an in-law of the dead male terrorist.  It certainly looks at this point like that “marriage” was a sham, too.

    “Curiouser and curioser”, said . . . well, damn near anyone with a working brain.

    Yeah, Secretary Johnson – looks like your department’s certainly “got some ‘splainin’ to do.”  About multiple things.

  • Thank You, Captain Obvious

    Well, even a stopped clock is right twice daily.  From our “good DHS Secretary”, Jeh Johnson:

    “We do have to be concerned about the possibility that a terrorist organization may seek to exploit our refugee resettlement process,” he said Wednesday.

    Johnson further went on to say that the      group of fools and tools screwing things up by the numbers in DC     current Administration “is continuing to reevaluate” screening associated with the US refugee resettlement program.

    Gee, Mr. Secretary – ya think?  Maybe seeing 14 killed and 20+ wounded by a terrorist who should have been refused admission to the US because of a grossly insufficient visa screening process gave him a clue.

    Personally, I think Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois had the proper response: “I mean this respectfully to the secretary, but, duh.”

    I agree, Rep. Kinzinger.  Even Stevie Wonder could see there was a potential problem with refugee screening months ago.  One has to wonder why those in current Administration couldn’t.

    And speaking of screening those seeking to enter the US, here’s another bit or two of “oh so good” news.  A senior official of the Department of State admitted when testifying before Congress the other day that it’s not just so-called “refugees” that pose a security problem.  It seems that the State department has no idea of the whereabouts of literally thousands of persons admitted to the US whose visa was later revoked. Many of those visas were revoked due to later concerns that the individual had ties to terrorism.

    Further, a senior DHS individual also confirmed in later testimony before the same Congressional committee that while pilot projects are have begun to test screening of visa applicants’ social media posts, “such checks aren’t being done in an abundant manner”.  Let me provide a plain English translation of that bit of Bureaucrat-Speak:  “We’re still trying to figure out how to do that.”

    Yep.  It sure sounds to me like the current Administration has this issue “completely under control.”  No need to be concerned!

  • Meanwhile, Back At the State Department . . .

    . . . we have the case of Bryan Pagliano,

    You might remember him. He’s the guy who was the Clintoon campaign’s 2008 IT director. He later set up her “personal email server”.

    He also was hired by the State Department as an IT specialist. He left in Feb 2013, sometime after Clintoon resigned as Secretary of State.

    Well, Senator Chuck Grassley – Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee – asked State to provide his committee copies of the guy’s official emails from when he worked for State.  Seems that ol’ Bryan had been called to testify before Congress this past fall (probably the reason you remember the name) – and refused to answer questions, invoking the Fifth Amendment.  Sen. Grassley is trying to determine whether to grant the fella immunity.

    From the time after Clintoon resigned, apparently State can find Pagliano’s email archives.  But regarding the period while time he worked for State while she was SECSTATE, well . . . do you really need me to tell you what they’re telling Sen. Grassley?

    Yep. Department spokesmen have said that State’s “investigators have not yet located a .pst that covers the time period of Secretary’s Clinton tenure”.

    Are you surprised?  Nah.  Me neither.

    However, the FBI has seized the man’s former government computer.  So if FBI forensic technicians are allowed to do their jobs, there’s a fair chance they might find something.

    Given the track record of this “most transparent administration in history”, however . . . well, I don’t plan to hold my breath waiting.

  • “We have not contained ISIS.”

    At least a few people in charge DC are still in touch with reality.

    Remember about a month ago, when the POTUS flatly stated that Da’esh, AKA ISIS, had been contained? You know, when he said, “I don’t think they’re gaining strength. What is true is that from the start, our goal has been first to contain, and we have contained them”?

    You probably also remember what happened a couple of days later. That would be the Da’esh terrorist attacks in Paris, which killed 130 and injured literally hundreds more.

    Great “containment”, eh?

    Anyone with a clue knew the POTUS was “out to lunch” when he made that statement about Da’esh (AKA “ISIS”). Well, yesterday someone in a position to know flatly contradicted the POTUS. That someone would be the CJCS, Gen Joseph Dunford. This article’s title is a direct quote from his answers to questions posed by members of the House Armes Services Committee yesterday.

    Gen Dunford further indicated that while Da’esh may have been tactically contained in selected areas in Syria and Iraq, “strategically they have spread since 2010.” He further indicated that the group now poses a threat well outside of Syria and Iraq – specifically, in Egypt, Nigeria, Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Lebanon and Jordan.

    It’s kinda obvious that Gen Dunford omitted at least one other area where Da’esh poses a threat, too – Europe.  Paris rather demonstrated that.

    “Contained”? Yeah, right. I’m pretty sure that wasn’t rain wetting the leg of my trousers this time, either. Tell us another one, Mr. President.

    Geez. It would be damn nice to see Administration officials – including the POTUS – simply tell us the truth vice trying to peddle blatantly obvious BS. But with this current      gang of naive and incompetent fools and tools calling the shots in DC      Administration, I won’t hold my breath waiting.

  • At DHS, $1+ Billion and a Decade’s Work Equals . . . One Electronic Form Online

    Over a decade ago, DHS decided to modernize its immigration processing.  So DHS decided to initiate a project that would make many of the required forms available online, and to allow them to be filled out online as well – with answers stored digitally.  Associated fees were also to be payable online.

    The system was originally projected to cost around $500 million, and to have been completed two years ago. The reality? Well, that’s a bit different.

    Today, the system DHS commissioned has one form that can be filled out online. (Two other forms briefly were available online, but were pulled due to technical issues.) DHS’s system also will accept a single fee online. The remaining nearly 100 forms and their associated fees (if any) today remain paper only.

    The system is now expected to be ready in four years – maybe – after having taken close to twice the amount of time originally estimated. And the total cost is expected to be approximately $3.1 billion – or around 6 times the original estimated cost.

    The Washington Post yesterday had a longish article describing this debacle. You won’t enjoy reading it. But IMO you should read it anyway.

    Why?  Well, after all . . . you and I are paying for this abomination.  It literally is “our tax dollars at work” – loosely speaking, of course, since not much real “work” seems to be getting done here.

  • Throwing Good Money After Bad?

    Stripes today has an article  indicating the US Deputy SECSTATE has announced US pledges of another nearly $100M to support “Syria’s opposition”.  Presumably, that’s the “non ISIS”, moderate Syrian opposition – assuming any of those creatures still exist today.  The aid will go to “support local and provincial councils, civil society activists, emergency services and other needs on the ground inside Syria.”

    Well, whatever isn’t stolen or diverted theoretically will, anyway.  I’m guessing a fair chunk will end up used for other purposes – and possibly even in ISIS’s coffers.  But maybe I’m wrong.

    The article goes on to say that Saudi Arabia “wants Assad gone”, and that the timing of his departure – along with the departure of “foreign fighters” – are major sticking points in ending the Syrian civil war.  Gee, ya think?  I’d have never guessed.  How about we file that bit of wisdom in the “No Sh!t” category?

    Of course Assad’s departure is a sticking point – he has no intention of departing, and he’s currently running part of Syria.  Further, both Assad and those “foreign fighters” have their own interests in being there, and in preventing an ISIS takeover of Syria – kinda like we do, actually.  So that’s obviously a “sticking point”, too.  Sheesh.

    This new pledge brings to $500M the amount the US will have spent supporting the Syrian opposition since 2012.   Now it seems to me we could have spent all that money far more effectively, given the results we’ve gotten to date.  But maybe that’s just me.

    “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”  I said that years ago, and I see no reason to change my mind now.

    Sometimes the devil you know is indeed better than the one you don’t.  If you don’t believe that . . . think back 3 years, then look at ISIS today.

  • Political Connections? You Decide.

    I’ll just leave this here, followed by  some brief comments.

    Watchdog: Feds sold horses for slaughter to rancher with reported political ties

    First comment:  this type of corrupt behavior is disgusting.  Second:  since the government apparently lost money on the deal – but the marketing specialist who approved the sales nonetheless got superior reviews (and bonuses) for several years while this was going on – I’m not sure I believe the “this matter did not warrant further investigation” finding.

    The full IG report can be found here.

    I guess this was just another bit of honest, above-board dealing from “the most transparent Administration in history”.