Iran openly calls for its terror allies to hunt down and kill the children of Isreali Prime Manager Benjamin Netanyahu. Kill his children. And this is B. Hussein’s partner in peaceful negotiations.
The man is simply misguided or their vision is also his.
So, one of my last blogs was a mind-numbing, insomnia curing look at where the money the government spends comes from and where they spend it. Assuming you are still awake, this one is more about how I think we should be spending it.
Defense/military: Without a strong national military nothing else will matter. If we can’t defeat an enemy at our doorsteps, they will have run of the house. Having said that, our national leaders have also allowed the cost of spending to outpace the value of what we buy. A single B2 bomber costs $737 million dollars. The entire program cost roughly $44.75 billion and we have 20 planes in the inventory. By “entire program” I include research & development, casting tooling, salaries for engineers, testing facilities, etc. The plane itself is the tip of the spear. The rest of that stuff is the spear handle.
The F35 stealth fighter runs between $114 million and $142 million depending on the variant, per plane. The country plans to buy 2443 of these aircraft. We have about 150 now. The costs are only going up because of delays, many of which were our own fault. In 2009 the Pentagon cried that spies had successfully downloaded several terabytes of data about the plane and that more money would be needed to protect the system from the data they failed to secure. The added costs and further delays make leaders squeamish and anxious to cut future orders. This would cause per plane costs to escalate rapidly prompting even further future order cuts. The plane, as sophisticated and sexy as it is has become too expensive.
Last month the Army complained that the Congress was making them take an additional $120 million in Abrams tanks that it says it does not need or want. Each tank runs about $6 million to make. Most of these tanks are not new however, are refurbished or upgraded older variants. The cost is a little lower, closer to $4 million per tank. The Congressman is trying to make sure the production line in his state does not close. If it all shut down, as many as 20,000 would lose their high paying jobs. Sadly, the tank is so well made, it is too survivable. Nothing on the battle field exists that can destroy one. Certainly the tank can be “killed” albeit usually just a mobility kill. There has been one catastrophically killed by an anti-tank mine, but it was also combined with seven 155mm howitzer rounds—not your standard encounter. The turret was blown off. Another drove onto a bridge collapsing it. The crew drowned. But tank on tank? Only when we’ve purposely destroyed it ourselves when it was abandoned. Most of our current tanks are about three years old. As we continue to cut the size of the military, we do not need more and more tanks—even we if we DO decide to pre-stage some in Germany again.
The Virginia-class submarine runs a hefty $2.65 billion per. We have eleven of them. The Seawolf-class was supposed to run $33.6 billion but was stopped after three were built. Bigger, faster, and quieter than the Los Angeles-class, and also having more armaments. They were just too expensive and were cancelled. The Virginia-class are slated to be in service until 2060 so we are getting our money’s worth.
These four examples all show one thing—our weapons systems, while the best anywhere in the world are too expensive to design, produce, and upgrade—long term. It is a death spiral of the inverse kind. They are effective in combat, kill the enemy, and come home. We place such a premium on survivability that once built, we rarely need another.
Another aspect that is killing our ability to afford the world’s premier military is the assumption that everyone who works within it, primarily the owners of the conglomerate companies, all the way down to the janitors, all have to be incredibly wealthy. After all, that F35—does it really cost $142 million? Remember the $1200 hammers, the $600 toilet seats, and the $40 bolts and washers? That’s how come these weapons platforms are so expensive. The programs that procure them are rife with corruption and price fixing.
All the same…as soon as budget cuts are mentioned, Congress looks to the military. It is as if they think there is no fixed cost for even having one. Having those heavy tank divisions, and mechanized Infantry Divisions, and all those Air Wings, and the 300-ish ship Navy—that is all free. The only costs associated with the military are for payroll and for pensions, right? The first vote held after the elections…the first one, Congress screwed the military again. They reduced the amount of a pay raise, the increased the costs of some medicines if bought at specialized locations, and lowered the rate of housing increases.
See, we need that extra money from the military budget—our peace dividend—in order to make sure Johnny Mcfrymaster makes $15.00 per hour. You think if they make the minimum wage mandatory at $15.00 that the producer, the company is going to absorb that? No, he’s going to pass that on to the consumer. So, your Big Mac and McNugget meal is going to have to go up in price. And once we collectively decide that $10 for a “value” meal is too much, we’ll all cut back on going. That means the businesses are going to have to either lay folks off or—be bailed out by the government. We’ve already established the kind of businesses that are too big to fail. You think the entire fast-food industry fall OUTSIDE of those parameters? Think again.
Never mind that flipping burgers and scooping fries was never a job designed for a 30-year old; unless they are managing other 18-year olds. If you are 30, and your primary work tool is a spatula, you probably still live at home, are divorced, and paying so much in child support you can’t afford anything newer than a 1985 K-car.
And THERE is where we stopped making cars the people could afford with a built in and acceptable breakdown date.
Today I went online and made my political party affiliation “unaffiliated”. I found I could no longer stomach being associated with the party that has John Boehner as its leader.
I’m even from Ohio. You’d think I’d be proud to be able to say that Speaker of the House is from my state. Alas, I find him petulant, vengeful, and childish—in all the wrong areas and to all the wrong people.
Twenty-five other Republicans found that in their own conscious they could not vote for him to be Speaker for a third term. He still was elected, just by a slimmer margin. His response? Anyone who voted against him, especially if they were on a committee, lost that posting. And he may not be done with them after doing that. I guess he figures that if they vote against him in the beginning they might continue to do so. His margin is big enough in his mind, so he doesn’t need those 25 Republicans. He can cave in to Obama for the next two years without them just fine.
He is like that skinny pimply kid with the thick glasses in school—the one who always had his books knocked out of his arms. Now he’s been made the hall monitor by the teacher. He has an ounce of power and he is now lashing out at those he thinks did him wrong.
It is not to say that I won’t vote for Republicans. I might. My voting decision only means that I have to do more homework on my own. But the best benefit? I’m not supposed to receive all those mailings anymore as elections draw near. The only drawback is that I no longer get to vote in primaries. I can no longer help shape who the Republican (hopefully Conservative) candidate might be. An example would be the run up to the Gubernatorial election in Colorado. I will no longer get to help pare down the selections from Tancredo, Beauprez, and the litany of others. I will only get to vote in the general election. And that’s okay. I can still write in my candidate—sort of like I did in that very election.
Want me back Republican Party? Start staying true to your core values, your platform. We voted you idiots into office to do just that. Now that you are there, your focus has shifted to how you can stay there, not what is best for you constituents or the country. That shift has to start from the top. By getting rid of John Boehner.
Whenever people start talking about the budget, listener’s eyes glaze over and they start drooling. They can’t conceive of numbers so large and find it impossible to equate the same types of budgeting they do at home to be writ large at the governmental level. Trust me, the politicians spending our money are banking on that. They want a stupid, ignorant, malleable dependent populace. They don’t want you to learn how they are spending and wasting your dollars, largely to either stay in office or to give it to people ideologically opposed to our way of life and thinking.
But I’m going to try anyway.
Right now, go to this page. It shows the average person (us) what just one trillion dollars looks like. http://www.pagetutor.com/trillion/index.html
Now, having seen what one trillion dollars looks like, recall that B. Hussein’s budget is 4 times that. Where does all that money come from in order for him to give it all away?
Revenues: 56% of it, 2.2 trillion comes from tax revenues. Individuals, corporations, duties on foreign goods, excise taxes, etc. Over half of it is our taxes. This is money the government has mandated that you give to them. You earned it but they take it.
29% of the revenues, 1.12 trillion dollars come from Trust Funds from Social Security, Medicare taxes.
15% of the revenues come from borrowing. We borrow $561 billion dollars to make up the shortfall from what we take in, to what B. Hussein wants to pay out.
Now, where does all that money go?
Expenditures: 65% of it, $2.56 trillion dollars—more than all of the tax revenues taken in, go to pay for Medicare ($999 billion), Medicaid, Social Security ($900 billion), welfare, food stamps ($106 billion), and unemployment ($47 billion). This is all called “mandatory spending”. They are by their definition entitlements but the government says we HAVE to do this spending. So, when they talk about cutting the federal budget, they are not looking here.
“Discretionary spending” equals 29% of the spending dollars, $1.16 trillion. This is where the defense budget ($640 billion), education ($72 billion), International affairs—also known as foreign aid—money we simply give to other countries—($38 billion), Energy/Environment ($38 billion), and transportation (fixing our roads)($26 billion). This is money we spend that “we really don’t have to spend”. Makes me wonder then, why we ALWAYS cut the defense budget first. Why not cut the amount of money we simply give to foreign countries—especially places like Pakistan and other sand pits in the Middle East. We give them money to continue to hate us.
“Interest on the debt”—6%, or $252 billion. So we borrow $561 billion in order to pay $252 billion in interest (no principal—just interest) on our nation debt. If we’d shitcan the Energy Department, Education Department, and stop giving billions to countries that hate us, we’d cut that $252 billion down to $104 billion. We take in $1.12 trillion for Social Security and Medicare, but pay out $2.5 trillion. More people today are on food stamps than ever in our country’s history. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/09/23/why-are-47-million-americans-on-food-stamps-its-the-recession-mostly/ Almost 47 million Americans take food stamps—1 in 6 of us. And they can stay on food stamps longer even if they get a job. If the area where they live is deemed “high unemployment” they can keep getting them even if they no longer “need” them.
Here are more recent facts for you. http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2014/09/not-looking-for-work-why-labor-force-participation-has-fallen-during-the-recovery
Today, nearly 7 million Americans simply stopped looking for work. They are not counted in the unemployment rate. Another 6 percent (perhaps some of those 7 million) are now collecting Social Security disability payments instead of looking for work. I mean, why flip burgers and sweat if I can get paid a similar amount to sit on my fat ass? The drop in employment participation rate totally accounts for the drop in the unemployment rate.
It all comes down to priorities and these always change with the ideology of the sitting administration. Conservatives are more prone to spend on defense and greater self-expansion and reliance. Liberals are more prone to spend on social programs and creating greater dependency. This is why the defense budget is always the sacrificial lamb at budget cutting times under liberals. If we just spread the wealth and give people money, they will like us more and we won’t need a military. They can’t see that once a military is too weak to defend its nation, the bad guys will have no obstacle to simply taking over. They don’t understand that you cannot coexist with someone who is hell bent on killing you—whether or not you give him the money to buy the machete he cuts your head off with.
Michael Brown, black, 18, over 6-feet tall and weighing in at close to 300 pounds, was shot and killed by Darren Wilson, a white police officer, himself over six-feet tall but only about 225 in weight. Wilson was responding to a burglary/theft at a local market. The described individual matched Michael Brown when Wilson arrived. Brown was with another individual and both were walking down the middle of the street despite their being room on either side of the street. Wilson and Brown spoke, and Brown attacked Wilson inside his police vehicle. Brown went for Wilson’s gun and the weapon was discharged inside the vehicle. Seconds later, Brown, now several feet away from Wilson lowered his head and charged at Wilson. The officer responded as he was trained and fired several times striking and killing Brown. Those are the basic facts. This is not what the media and the race-baiters wanted you to know.
Within minutes the headlines were overrun by examples of a white cop killing an unarmed black youth. Later, since he was 18, Brown’s description was upgraded to unarmed black man. But the word “unarmed” was almost always used. It was vital to the image the media wanted painted—that being a white cop, being the one with all of the power, deliberately preyed upon an unarmed, therefore wholly innocent black child. Clearly, the cop was a racist. Right?
For months, Wilson was painted as racist, that he acted abruptly, that he over-reacted, that he was trigger happy. All the while Brown was painted as innocent, without any fault, was minding his own business, had his hands up in surrender, and was in fact running away from the evil police officer in fear as he was hell-bent on killing him. All the pictures shown in the media showed a smiling, ballcap wearing youth. There is no way the officer would have cause to even arrest this smiling angel, let alone kill him with 6 shots. Right?
Witness after witness came forward to corroborate this narrative. Brown was seen running away. Brown was seen in a hands-up surrender posture. Audio clips surfaced painting the picture that Wilson was basically on a hunting trip fearless that he would be caught or punished.
Never mentioned in all of the coverage was the fact that Wilson was responding to a theft of merchandise from the market and that Brown matched the description from the shop owner as the criminal. Or that Brown resisted arrest.
After weeks of grand jury investigation and deliberation, after all of the evidence was viewed including all of the inflammatory and false testimony, the jury returned with no verdict against the officer. Three of the twelve jurors were black. You’d think that if they really thought that Wilson was a cold-blooded racist killer, that would have stone walled the process, they would have held out their verdict; that they would have returned with a hung jury. That they did not reveals one of two possibilities. The police officer acted properly in his own personal defense and in line with his training. Or, the other nine jurors exerted undue influence over the three black jurors and forced them to toe the line.
The verdict was exactly what the race-baiters wanted. They didn’t want Wilson to be found guilty, liable and prosecuted. They wanted a reason to riot, loot, burn, and destroy. Most of the riot leaders were out of towners. Most of the shops destroyed were minority owned. So who was hurt by all the destruction? Certainly not the evil white empire that clearly is just trying to keep the brother man down.
Now, the verdict ramifications are moving into the halls of Congress, the white house (I’ll not capitalize it until the respect is brought back to it), and as a result, into other cities and their police departments. Representative Hakeem Jefferies, (fine Irish name), D, NY states that, “In community, after community, after community, fed up with police violence in Ferguson, in Brooklyn, in Cleveland, in Oakland, in cities and counties and rural communities all across America….”
More from this idiot: Jeffries added that people are fed up with injustice, a broken criminal justice system and “continuing to see young, unarmed African-American men killed as a result of a gunshot fired by a law enforcement officer.”
“Now this is a problem that Congress can’t run away from and the [Congressional Black Caucus] stands here today to make sure that Congress runs toward the problem,” Jeffries said. “That we come up with constructive solutions to breaking this cycle, this epidemic, this scourge of police violence all across America.”
POLICE VIOLENCE. Oh, I get it. It is a scourge, an epidemic. Police across the nation are deliberately targeting black youths. The police are all white, too, I suppose. News flash, there Hakeem…most black youths in inner city regions are not unarmed. The kid in Cleveland pointed his toy gun at police. The orange “toy-identifying” indicator had been removed. The gun looked EXACTLY like a Colt 1911 45-caliber. I’d have shot the kid myself. Twice.
Four players on the St. Louis Rams voiced their indignation on the verdict with their own version of a Hands Up, Don’t Shoot display in the end zone. People were “offended”; (No, you just didn’t like it. They weren’t offended. People just abuse the word.) The people of St. Louis should be showing their indignation of their team’s shitty professional performance…5 wins, 7 losses, last in their division, four games behind. Now, the white house gets involved. Of course. B. Hussein has to have the camera pointing at him regardless of the topic.
Now the resident in chief was $263 million to train police and to equip them with body cameras. I guess it is because the millions of smart phones pointed at every moving thing, and the closed circuit TV’s on almost every intersection, business front, and dashboard of police cars is not enough. What went unsaid, but was probably intended (since the majority of the police mistrust is in minority communities) was that we want to just equip the white officers with cameras. They’re the ones doing all of the killing, after all. What an asshole.
Never mentioned are the 6 other black youths that were killed by other black youths in Chicago the day Darren Wilson defended himself. Not a peep.
Geraldo Rivera is feeling rather glib these days and he doesn’t mind rubbing a few GOP noses in the dirt. To listen to his remarks, B. Hussein’s illegal thrashing of the Constitution is long overdue and the Republicans had it coming.
His remarks: “The GOP has zero intention to do anything on immigration except build higher fences and hire more border guards. They’ve been busy falsely blaming Latino immigrants for everything from ISIS to Ebola.”
How positively helpful! Geraldo knows what every GOP official thinks! We should elect him as the Republican National Chairman since he knows us all so well. Unmentioned in his tirade is the FACT that B. Hussein’s Senate’s bill DOUBLES the number of border agents. Yes, the bill that Harry Reid and friends passed that the House did not take up would have funded the doubling of border agents. Of course, they probably would not be used to actually protect the border. They’d be used to babysit the coming hordes of illegals that will soon swarm to the border regions hoping for protection under B. Hussein’s amnesty program.
I did a quick search on Google for headlines where anyone, ANYONE in the GOP blames Ebola or ISIS on illegal immigrants or Latinos in general. Nothing. The first listing was a reprint of Geraldo accusation. The next 15 hits were all where Democrat leaders were blaming the GOP for Ebola. I’ll wait. Read that again.
Democrats were blaming the GOP for Ebola.
He follows with: “President Obama has the constitutional authority to order those working for him to lay off the law-abiding.”
Another pause such that his idiocy can sink in. B. Hussein has the Constitutional authority to order those working for him to lay off the law-abiding. Excuse me, but their very presence in this country is evidence that they are anything but law-abiding. Their first act—entering this country—was an illegal one. So, no, this president does not have the authority you so desperately wish he had.
And now, for my personal opinion on this asshole…I remember him getting the boot out of Iraq in 2003 when he was embedded with the 101st Airborne. On live TV he had his cameraman film him while he drew a map in the sand of Iraq and depicted where he (the 101st) was and where they were going. As if the Iraqis did not have cable and didn’t watch Fox News. Soldier safety, or headlines? We saw where Soldiers landed in that survey.
Geraldo reminds me of a Latino version of Louis Farrakhan. Louis sees all whites and non-Muslims as the enemy. Geraldo sees all Republicans as the enemy. There is no chance for redemption without total capitulation. I shake my head when ever O’Reilley has him on. Such a waste of time.
And now, for the other asshole.
One comment I heard from a pundit that B. Hussein’s actions open the door for the next conservative president (if there ever is one) to respond in kind with their own executive order to prosecute any doctor who performs abortions. Such is not possible.
Hussein’s action in essence is an order to not prosecute the criminal. What the pundit was suggesting was for that (hopeful) conservative President to prosecute that which is not criminal. There are already laws on the books (settled law—Roe v. Wade–regardless how I feel about it) that makes abortion legal. Doctors are federally allowed to perform abortions. States have the option to have or not have clinics to accommodate them.
Now what the actions of this current idiot CAN provide for if a conservative President is elected is to not prosecute those who say, actively, persistently block the doors to an abortion clinic to prevent a woman from entering. That action is illegal. But we now have precedence to not prosecute that which is criminal. A strongly pro-life President could order those blockading abortion clinics to not be prosecuted.
This logic can be extended to any criminal activity that is diametrically opposed by the two parties regardless of who is in office. It could be waived that a felon votes or owns a weapon. See how dangerous the spin off, the unintended consequences of this amnesty order can be? But then, maybe the consequences ARE intended.
So, does B. Hussein really give shit about these illegals? Does he really feel such compassion for them as he spoke with cracking voice, pleading eyes, and trembling lips yesterday? Of course not. The 5 million he is now protecting are just props for him—like so many umbrella holding Marines. Legacy? He doesn’t care. Public opinion? He doesn’t care. Dissent and disagreement? He doesn’t care.
B. Hussein is going to be Jimmy Carter on steroids when he leaves office. He will mouth off and second guess every decision of all of the follow on Presidents—especially Republicans—because he is smarter than anyone else the country can produce. No, B. Hussein is only continuing his promise to fundamentally change the country. By destroying its culture, its demographics, and its ability to defend itself.
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2014/10/23/5-reasons-women-live-longer-than-men/?intcmp=obmod_ffo&intcmp=obnetwork
Here’s a sixth:
6. They want to.
http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-TV/2014/10/24/Hillary-Dont-Let-Anybody-Tell-You-That-Businesses-Create-Jobs
So, Hillary says that business don’t create jobs. Who does, then? Government?
Actually, she may have a partial point. Government DOES create jobs. When they siphon enough off the private sector to actually get something done. But government does not create careers. Only the private sector business can do that.
When the Democrats talk about “investing” in infrastructure, they are really talking about taxing all of us in order to grease the wheel of some politcial favorite in order to get a small project completed. Even the Keystone Pipeline, so often touted by the Republicans is an example.
The work created for this project is mostly temporary–gone once the main pipeline is in. Massive layoffs will occur. Very few careers will be borne of it.
The same happens with every job the government “creates”. The roads and bridges we all hear about needing renovations and repairs…these are all short-term jobs. Once the project is done and the contract is fulfilled, most of the workers will be laid off. Nary a career created.
But if the government would get the fuck out of the way, small businesses could again flourish and creates both jobs AND careers.
Romney, as silly and “aw shucks” as he was understood this. Democrats only want a larger, all-encompassing government to provide for our every need. And as we’ve still yet to realize, a government big enough to give you all you need is big enough to take away all you have.
Elect Hillary and we’ll be a step closer to finding out.
NEW YORK – New York City police Commissioner William Bratton says the hatchet attack on four rookie officers was a terrorist act by a homegrown radical.
Bratton said Friday the suspect, Zale Thompson, was a Muslim convert who ranted online against America, but had no clear ties to international terrorism. He believes Thompson was self-radicalized.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/10/24/hatchet-attack-on-nypd-officers-act-terror-commissioner-says/
The gunman who fatally shot a Canadian soldier and wounded three other people during a shootout inside Parliament Wednesday was reportedly a recent Muslim convert.
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2014/10/canadas-parliament-under-attack-dozens-of-shots-fired/#XIbsK41MwYdFko4S.99
…just two examples in the last couple of days. All the media really needs to say when reporting these murders is:
“The assailant was a recent convert to Islam.”
Religion of peace my ass. Wake up.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/10/22/calibration-error-changes-gop-votes-to-dem-in-illinois-county/
A voting machine in Illinois changed any vote for a Republican into a vote for a Democrat.
Republican state representative candidate Jim Moynihan went to vote Monday at the Schaumburg Public Library.