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

Category: “Your Tax Dollars At Work”

  • Hiding the Truth? Sure Looks Like It to Me.

    The DHS claimed earlier this year that they prevent roughly 81% of adults trying to sneak into the US across the southwestern border from doing that.  Specifically, they claimed an interdiction rate (defined as apprehension or forcing the individual to turn back) of 81.01%.

    Now, having lived in that part of the country for a while myself . . . IMO that claim doesn’t pass the “smell test”.  But regardless, that was their claim.

    If that number seems suspiciously low to you too, well, there may be a good reason.

    It seems in last year’s Fiscal 2016 Omnibus Bill required DHS to provide Congress a report on the matter.  The report still hasn’t been provided to Congress.  DHS says the report “isn’t finished”.

    Sources familiar with the situation say that is bull.

    Instead, those familiar with the subject say such a report was completed last November by a contractor for DHS – specifically, the Institute for Defense Analyses.  Apparently DHS already had such a study underway when Congress demanded one from them.

    Those knowledgeable  further indicate that the report is unclassified and is not marked to preclude public release.  They further say it’s also reportedly the “most extensive survey” of US illegal immigration and enforcement along our southwestern border conducted to date.

    Contrary to DHS claims, the report apparently shows that the actual interdiction rate (apprehension or turned back while attempting to cross) for adults attempting to cross the US border illegally is about 50% – not the 81% DHS claims.   The DHS figure was produced by “padding the numbers”.  It was calculated after including unaccompanied children and those who voluntarily surrendered (likely because they were either lost or in severe distress) vice being apprehended.

    In short, that “81%” number simply isn’t accurate.  DHS did not apprehend or force back 81% of adults attempting to cross the US southwestern border illegally; the actual fraction is far lower.  They’re engaging in intentional spin and dissembling.  Again.

    Gee, you don’t think maybe that’s why they’re “stonewalling” release of the report that exposes the truth – do you?  Why, this Administration would never do something like that!  (I trust the sarcasm in the preceding two sentences was obvious.)

    Fox News has an article giving more details.  It’s worth a read.

    “Most transparent Administration in history.”  Yeah. Right.

     

  • Benghazi

    Don’t much care if the aging leftist Canadian hippie who wrote the original is offended; he can pack up and go back to Canada for all I care.  Fair use and all that.

     

    Benghazi

    Trapped in a seaside town building
    Surrounded by jihadi
    Can’t you hear the mortars crumping
    Four dead in Benghazi

    No way now to stop it
    Islamists gunning them down
    Should have sent help long ago
    They had no chance since State
    Hung them all out to dry
    As SECSTATE surely did know

    . . .

    Help ready but mission canx
    Soldiers told to stand down
    As if nothing was at stake
    Instead all still there were
    Abandoned on the ground
    “What diff-er-ence does it make?”

    There would be no rescue coming
    To that African city
    We did absolutely nothing
    Four dead in Benghazi

    Four dead in Benghazi

    Four dead in Benghazi

    . . .

    The attack on the US Consulate in Benghazi began at approximately 3:40PM EDT (9:40PM local time) on Tuesday, 11 September 2012.  It spread to include the nearby CIA Annex early (local time) the next morning.

    Four Americans died in the attack:  US Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens, Embassy Information Officer Sean Smith, and CIA contract employees Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods.  Smith, Doherty, and Woods were veterans.  Stevens and Smith were members of the US Foreign Service.

    Rest in peace, men.

    The result of some “offensive film”?  Film my ass.  This was a well planned terrorist attack intentionally timed to occur on a date where we should have been on heightened alert:  the anniversary of 9/11.

    Ask the SECSTATE at the time why it was instead apparently “business as usual, no worries” in Benghazi that day prior to the attack.

    . . .

    Footnote: the CSN&Y original ended with Stephen Stills singing the interjectory phrases “Why?” (some sources say “Why did they die?”) and “How many more?” Those questions are apropos here too.

    The identity of an Iranian scientist who was a US intelligence source was apparently exposed by material contained on Clintoon’s private email server – a server that was laughably badly secured, and which is widely believed to have been penetrated by multiple foreign intelligence services.  As Jonn noted earlier, that Iranian scientist was hanged by Iran in August 2016.

    The answer to the “How many more?” question is thus now, “At least one – and likely more.”

    The answer to the questions, “Why?” and “Why did they die?” should be reasonably obvious.

  • About That Recent “Return of Assets” to Iran . . .

    Remember that $400 million      ransom payment      return of assets we recently sent to Iran?  You know, the one made in cash, using foreign currency obtained in Europe, by a cargo plane immediately before 4 US citizens      held hostage by Iran       detained by Iran were released?  The cash payment I wrote about previously here – and again here – and mentioned yet again here?

    Well, it appears that the       gang of idiots screwing up US foreign policy “by the numbers”      current Administration has recently acknowledged that cash payments in foreign currency made to Iran didn’t stop after the first payment.  The total paid in cash to Iran amounted to far more than the original $400M.  Rather, the entire $1.7 billion in “returned assets” was apparently paid in foreign currency – e.g., in cash.

    The first installment of $400M was sent to Iran on the day Iran agreed to release those       US hostages      detained US citizens:  17 January 2016.  The Administration has now confirmed that the second and third payments of those “returned assets”, totaling another $1.3 billion, were made a few days after their release – on 22 January 2016 and 5 February 2016, respectively.  They were also made in foreign currency.

    Hmm.  So, we made cash payments to an adversary that was at the time detaining a number of US citizens, and in return those US citizens were promptly released.  To me that certainly sounds an awful lot like the textbook definition of something called a “ransom” – and a big honking ransom at that.  And it was paid in cash.

    But maybe that’s just me.

    Oh, and if anyone’s wondering if this is a “big freaking deal”, it is – for two reasons.  First, we have now established the principle that we will indeed pay ransom for US citizens held hostage by adversaries, at least sometimes.  This is idiocy that even Jimmy “the Clueless” Carter did not commit.

    And, second:  cash generally cannot be traced.  And $1.7 billion can fund a helluva lot of terrorist activity.

    I really did not think I’d live long enough to see a US Administration more inept, foreign-policy wise, than Carter’s Clueless Crew.  I was wrong.  This gang of naive fools in DC today takes the cake.

  • Russia’s Military Gets “Frisky”, Part 5

    Well, looks like Putin decided it was time to give the POTUS the finger yet again.

    Yesterday, a Russian SU-27 “buzzed” a US reconnaissance jet over the Black Sea.  The incident occurred 40 miles from the Russian coast.

    This time, it’s estimated that the Russian aircraft passed within 10 feet of the US aircraft, a Navy P-8 Poseidon.

    The incident occurred while the US SECSTATE, John “Christmas in Cambodia” Kerry, is attempting to negotiate with Russia concerning a cease-fire in Syria.  Gee, you don’t suppose this incident was intentional, and intended to send a message – do you?

    There’s no word on whether the pilot of the Russian aircraft gave the US crew the finger – or mooned them – during the close approach.  But if he had, that would have been apropos.

    Hell, Putin’s been doing that to the current POTUS and his gang of sycophants for years now.  They don’t seem to mind.

    And Lord knows, there haven’t been any consequences for Russia for doing that.

  • More Evidence of Clintoon “Pay for Play”? Sure Looks Like It – Part II

    I’ve written about this subject before (and before, and before).  But it’s the “gift that keeps on giving”.

    Or perhaps that should read that it’s the “corruption that reeks to high heaven”.  Because at first glance, that’s exactly what it looks like.

    We know that Clintoon Foundation donors and/or executives appear to have gotten “preferred access” when it came to personal meetings with a certain SECSTATE between 2009 and early 2013.  But it seems that they may have gotten some other perks, too.

    In particular, it appears that one of those “other perks” in some cases may have been unwarranted diplomatic passports.  Unwarranted, as in “issued to private individuals who do not travel on diplomatic business for the United States”.

    And yeah:  as was the case with preferred access, it looks like Clintoon’s “protégé” Huma Abedin was involved hip-deep in this as well.

    Predictably, Clintoon’s        naive sycophants and/or paid “spin doctors”         supporters have sought to downplay this latest revelation.  They’ve claimed that some of those folks “were actually at times engaged in diplomatic efforts”.

    Yeah, right.  Sure they were.  Just like I’m the freaking King of Siam.

    The Daily Caller has a short article giving a few details; Fox News has a longer one giving more.  Both articles IMO are worthwhile – if disgusting – reading.

    You or I would be in jail by now.

  • “The exemptions or loopholes are happening in secret, and it appears that they favor Iran.”

    The title above is not a quote from some Trump campaign speech, or from some “Right wing” editorial.  Rather, it comes from David Albright.

    Albright’s president of the Institute for Science and International Security.  He’s a former UN weapons inspector.

    He’s also co-author of a report by his institute concerning the US-Iran nuclear agreement.  That report documents numerous “exemptions” the US and its partners granted to Iran so that Iran would not be in violation of the agreement on 16 January of this year.  That was the date at which the agreement required return of Iranian “assets” to begin.

    Or, in other words:  it had to happen so that we could      fund a $400 million cash blackmail payment for the return of some US citizens held hostage by Iran      begin returning Iranian assets frozen after the 1979 seizure of the US Embassy in Tehran.  And it was necessary not only for that, but so that afterwards we could       continue to give Iran money in the future they’ll use to fund their nuclear program      continue returning assets to Iran in the future.

    Funny, but I don’t recall hearing that Iran had returned our Embassy – or compensated the US for damages relating to its seizure.  But maybe I missed it.

    Reuters has a good article discussing this idiocy.  Since Reuters articles seem to have short on-line lifetimes, I’m also linking to a Fox News article which provides much the same info.

    Yeah, that Iranian nuclear agreement certainly seems to be a manifestly “good deal” – for Iran.  For the US and the rest of the West . . . not so much.

    Coming from this Administration that’s no surprise, though. Given their track record,       this bunch of clueless naive dolts        the current Administration seems so incompetent that I believe they could eff up a wet dream three times before breakfast.

  • The Clintoon “Private” Email Saga Continues . . . .

    Well, Clintoon’s “private” email is in the news again.

    Yeah, so what else is new?  Hell, I’ve written about it so many times now that a Google search of this site for the terms “Clintoon” and “email” turns up more than two pages of previous stories.

    In any case:  a few days ago I wrote that even more previously unreleased Clintoon email had been recovered recently by the FBI.  “Even more”, as in about 50% of the amount previously turned over by Clintoon’s lawyers.

    Supposedly, only non-work-related email wasn’t returned by Clintoon’s lawyers to the State Department 2 years ago.  You know, stuff about yoga, recipes, vacation plans and the like.  But rather obviously that claim now . . . seems suspect.  Highly suspect.

    Anyone wanna guess what I’m about to tell you today?

    Well, that’s actually a trick question; today you might well be wrong if you guessed.  No, there hasn’t been yet another batch of Clintoon “private” email located or recovered.

    However, it seems that some of the newly-recovered emails appear . . . interesting. Some of these new emails appear to be from mid-September 2012.  And among the new stuff around 30 emails – including some from mid-September 2012 – appear to concern something called “Benghazi”.

    Yeah, that Benghazi.  The same Benghazi where 4 Americans died while the Federal government sat around for hours with its thumb firmly inserted, doing nothing.

    I somehow just don’t think the Clintoons were planning a North African yoga vacation or discussing a local restaurant serving “Benghazi couscous” in those mid-September 2012 emails.  And of course all of those newly recovered emails that weren’t previously turned over were deleted “by accident” – not to cover up anything.

    Oh, and it also appears that Clintoon continued to send and/or receive classified email at that “private” account months after she left the State Department.

    Damn.  You or I would be in jail by now.

     

  • Bye, Corrine. Don’t Let the Door Hit You On the Way Out.

    Remember that       manifestly corrupt drooling idiot       esteemed US Representative from Florida, Rep. Corrine Brown?  You should; Jonn and TSO have written about the individual here multiple times – first here, then here, then here, then here, and finally here.  And I might have missed an article or two.

    In case you’ve forgotten:  she was recently indicted, along with her chief-of-staff, on fraud and other Federal charges – as in more than 20 total counts.  And she also had some, um, interesting things to say about the Orlando Pulse terrorist shooting incident.

    Well, Rep. Brown ran for reelection in yesterday’s Florida primary election.

    She lost.

    Gee.  That’s too bad.

    But at least it doesn’t look like she needs to worry too much about future employment.  I’m guessing that’s pretty well already arranged.

    Wonder how she’ll look in an orange jumpsuit?  (smile)