US Army Retired

US Army Retired

Monday, March 18, 2019

Drone photos, Funny Babylon Bee, Street lights for cell addicts, and much more for March 18, 2018





Lobster Tails and a Fancy Chair: Report Shows Lavish Year-End Military Spending
There is not one single thing new about this. It has happened every September ever since the government’s budget year was changed. There are always “left over” funds and, in order not to lose funding for the next fiscal year, every government organization finds ways to spend it.
The 32-page Open the Books report, published this month, showed the federal government as a whole spent an astounding $97 billion in September 2018 as the fiscal year was drawing to a close -- up 16 percent from the previous fiscal year and 39 percent from fiscal 2015. DoD spending accounted for $61.2 billion of that spending spree, awarding "use-it-or-lose-it" contracts and buying, among other things, $4.6 million worth of crab and lobster and a Wexford leather club chair costing more than $9,300.
And Senator Rand Paul has to whine about it.
If he doesn’t like it, get Congress to enact a “Zero Base Budgeting” system for the government, Instead of relying on past year needs, force each agency to justify its budget on actual costs for that year.
"Congress is a lot of the problem," Smithberger said. "Appropriators look and see whatever is not spent, they take and use for their pet project."

New Zealand climate minister punched in face
I normally wouldn’t bother to post something like this. But, with the attacks on mosques there and the deaths of so many, it makes me wonder what’s going on in that country so far away from us. In checking out the demography on Wiki, it doesn’t even mention people of Middle Eastern descent. But, that is not so unusual as it is possible the small Asian population may be the Muslims.
Green Party co-leader James Shaw was punched in the face early on Thursday in Wellington, but not seriously injured.
PM Jacinda Ardern said: "In New Zealand, you just don't expect these things to happen."
It is proud of its culture of political openness, and this has raised questions about the accessibility of lawmakers.
"We have an environment in New Zealand where politicians are accessible, and that's something we should feel proud of," Ms Ardern told reporters.
"We are after all, here to serve people. But today's events really show we cannot take that for granted."
A 47-year-old man was arrested and will appear in court on Friday, police said.

The New Zealand Shooter was not a Conservative
That what the Left and leftist-media is going to be screaming about this horrible event – that he was a conservative because of his hate-filled racist manifesto.
This man was the personification of evil. Every sane individual believes that. To blame American conservatives for the work of a madman, at this early hour, evinces a sad and reactive state of mind.
Conservatives believe in the sanctity of life. This monster took the lives of 49 innocent people.
Conservatives believe that the faithful should have the right to worship in peace. This monster abrogated that right in the most inhuman of ways.
Conservatives believe in the rule of law. This man broke the ultimate law, the proscription against taking another human life, and he broke it 49 times. This is an amoral mass murderer who every human being with the slightest claim to virtue knows will burn in hell.
Finally, and at the risk of being accused of politicization, I’ll note that New Zealand isn’t particularly amenable to gun rights and owning a firearm for the purposes of self-defense is strictly prohibited. In a terrorist attack where an individual has this kind of time, concealed carry could have ended this. This isn’t political, however, no more than grounding 737 MAX planes after two crashes is political. It’s a way to prevent or mitigate future disasters.

And here comes AOC:
At 1st I thought of saying, “Imagine being told your house of faith isn’t safe anymore.”
But I couldn’t say “imagine.”
Because of Charleston.Pittsburgh.Sutherland Springs.
What good are your thoughts & prayers when they don’t even keep the pews safe?pic.twitter.com/2mSw0azDN8
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) March 15, 2019

Media and Dems Rush to Blame Trump for Horrific New Zealand Shooting
How sickening can they get? No wonder few of us pay attention to or believe them!
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) actually blamed Trump’s rhetoric for the shooting during an interview on CNN.
“Words do have consequences, and we know that at the very pinnacle of power in our own country, people are talking about ‘good people on both sides,'” Blumenthal said, referring to Trump’s controversial comments following the violent white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in the summer of 2017.
“I think it’s more than the president. It’s the people who enable him, and who fail to stand up to him and speak out,” Blumenthal said. “I think that the public discourse from the president on down is a factor in some of these actions.”
NBC News national security analyst Ned Price claimed on MSNBC that “the tragic reality is that President Trump, whether intentionally, or I think in a lot of cases even inadvertently, has provided a lot of fodder for people like this.”
“This was the same president who praised ‘good people on both sides’ in the aftermath of Charlottesville,” Price continued. “So this is a president who has given plenty of rhetorical ammunition I think to terrorists like this, terrorists and extremists who are looking for fuel for their motivation.”
Hollywood Liberals Respond to New Zealand Shooting by Attacking Trump @ https://www.lifezette.com/2019/03/hollywood-liberals-respond-to-new-zealand-shooting-by-attacking-trump/
And here comes the Dingbat weighing in:
Aussie politician claims Muslims are responsible for New Zealand shootings @ https://www.rt.com/news/453953-australia-new-zealand-attack/
Islamism still biggest threat to Swedish national security, domestic spy agency says @ https://www.rt.com/news/453944-islamism-biggest-threat-sweden/
Think something similar to NZ might happen there?

ISLAMIC TERROR THREAT made against New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
"Revenge is coming" they write. https://t.co/7poIeZDkf5 pic.twitter.com/R8gYuOMm6y
— Nick Monroe (@nickmon1112) March 15, 2019

The Babylon Bee
To Avoid Confusing Words, Ilhan Omar Will Now Respond To All Questions With 'I Am Groot' @ https://babylonbee.com/news/to-prevent-any-further-confusion-with-her-words-ilhan-omar-will-now-respond-to-all-questions-with-i-am-groot
Nation Unsurprised As Ocasio-Cortez Comes Out Against Thoughts @ https://babylonbee.com/news/nation-unsurprised-as-ocasio-cortez-comes-out-against-thoughts
Bernie Sanders Captures Leprechaun To Confiscate Gold For Redistribution @ https://babylonbee.com/news/bernie-sanders-captures-leprechaun-demands-pot-of-gold-be-redistributed
Section On World History Added To Harry Potter Series So Millennials Will Actually Know Something Useful @ https://babylonbee.com/news/section-on-world-history-added-to-harry-potter-series-so-millennials-will-actually-know-something-useful
California Man Sentenced To 20 Years For Possession Of Crazy Straw @ https://babylonbee.com/news/california-man-sentenced-to-20-years-for-possession-of-crazy-straw
Southern Baptist Pastor Resigns In Disgrace After Admitting He Does Not Like Casseroles @ https://babylonbee.com/news/sbc-pastor-resigns-after-admitting-he-does-not-like-casseroles
County Officials Responsible for Woman’s Death at Hands of Illegal
Okay, so she was killed by an illegal – who would’ve been in I.C.E. custody if county officials had not denied the retainer request.
Another sickness of sanctuary governments.
Carlos Eduardo Arevalo Carranza, 24, has been charged with first degree murder for allegedly stalking and stabbing Larson on February 28. He is being held in custody without bond ahead of his May 17 hearing.
But the San Jose police revealed on Tuesday that Arevalo Carranza, a gang member, had been arrested multiple times prior to the murder. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had an active detainer request for him.
Yet county officials insisted their sanctuary policies were not at fault for the illegal immigrant’s repeated releases.

54 Photos Showing You Can’t Fix Stupid
Here we go with another one of those Yahoo News pieces where you spend forever clicking from one page to another. I wouldn’t even bother is some of those photos had not been so amazingly hilarious.
And
You won’t believe this one:

Here Are the Trump-Won Districts Held by Dems That the GOP Hopes to Flip in 2020 to Take Back House
With the way the Dims are acting, winning back these seats – and more – should be doable if only conservatives and independents get off their duffs and vote while getting their friends and family to do the same.
It’s the only way to keep our republic.
We can do it if we get GOP insiders to get off their duffs and get over their anti-Trump leanings. Put pressure on your local precinct and county organizations.

Drone Photos
Can you even begin to guess what this is?
Sigh. Another Yahoo News series, this one about drone photos.
And

Creaky Merit Systems Protection Board Shows Why Civil Service Is Badly in Need of Reform
Anybody who’s ever been a supervisor in government knows this to be true! You catch an employee committing a serious crime and try to fire him/her – give it up. They can be serving time in jail and will still retain their civil service status.
This board of three is down to one and can’t do the job is was created to do – all to the benefit of the SIEU and other government unions.
One reason why the Dims are doing everything they can to block new appointees.
Admitting the necessity of a functional Merit Systems Protection Board, given the current structure of our civil service system, should not be read as an endorsement of the status quo, however.
The board is an indispensable pillar of a badly outdated structure built 40 years ago and barely remodeled since. The entire architecture of the Civil Service Reform Act should be reimagined.
As a start, Congress should greatly simplify the administrative appeals process, creating a single forum for appeals of adverse agency actions.
That system existed prior to 1978 and the dissolution of the Civil Service Commission—and it worked well. A modern iteration of the commission could more expeditiously settle appeals and deliver justice for the appellant and the agency.
Splitting responsibility for appeals among several agencies does not guarantee more effective enforcement. The only thing it ensures is a less efficient process.

You Think Your Car’s Steering Wheel Controls are Complicated?
Well, check this one out.
And you’re supposed to know which does what while you’re going 200mph+!
How busy are the drivers? “If I look at a qualifying lap from last year, they are making something like 50 gearshifts over the course of a qualifying lap, they are steering through 17 corners, they are making seven or eight changes of rotary switches over the course of the lap and of course they are feeding back the information they are seeing on the dash to us as well,” said Short.

Tel Aviv tries out new crosswalk lights for cellular addicts
Think they’ll work?
TEL AVIV (Reuters) – Israel’s bustling business capital wants to stop “smartphone zombies” in their tracks.
Tel Aviv has placed ground-level LED lightstrips, which turn red and green, at a central crosswalk, hoping to catch the attention of pedestrians so engrossed in their mobile devices that they don’t look up before stepping into the road.
Similar trials have been carried out in Singapore, Australia and Germany.
Tomer Dror, head of Tel Aviv’s traffic management division, said walkers have been noticing the lightstrips, which began operating several days ago.
But Alex Shneider, a 32-year-old biologist who crossed the intersection on green while looking at his phone, said he never saw the signal.
“I was too occupied on the phone itself and I wasn’t paying attention to the light,” he said – after nearly bumping into a Reuters TV cameraman filming at the junction.

A rare virus outbreak at sea has left a US Navy warship quarantined for over 2 months
It means some shipboard medic managed to discover the seriousness of the problem and take steps to keep it from spreading.
A viral infection with symptoms similar to the mumps has been making its way around the USS Fort McHenry, a US Navy warship currently quarantined in the Persian Gulf, CNN reported.
At least 25 of the more than 700 troops on the ship have been diagnosed with parotitis.
"None of the cases are life-threatening and all have either already made or are expected to make a full recovery," Fifth Fleet told Business Insider in an emailed statement.

You need to know these Social Security tips now, even if you're years from retirement
Good stuff to know even if you already draw it.
1. Commit your full retirement age to memory
2. Know what the average benefit looks like
3. Report mistakes on your earnings record
4. Be aware of the earnings test limits
5. Know that delaying benefits pays off

Win the lottery? What to do and not to do when you suddenly receive a ton of money
Isn’t it amazing how quickly some lottery winners end up broke?
Do pay off your debt
Don’t tell the world [especially your distant family]
Do invest
Don’t radically change your life
Do figure out a plan
Don’t forget about taxes
Do choose the right accounts to protect your money
Making your money last

A College "Education" Has Little To Do With Education
We don’t have to name her but one Dim celebrity is certainly proof of this!
Over time, training in other professions, such as secular legal studies, became important goals for colleges and universities, largely because the middle classes saw this sort of training as a ticket to prosperity. Rarely was a college education sold to the middle classes as an exercise in intellectual self improvement or gaining an appreciation of Virgil and Dante. But even then, the educational aspects of a college "education" weren't the most important part of the experience. Training could often be attained on-the-job in law as in other professions. The college degree, on the other hand, was valuable because it communicated a certain elite status.
And this is what the middle classes really wanted most. After all, it's hard to imagine an 1830s middle-class family patriarch, slaving away at the family shipping business, and scraping together tuition money for junior just so he can go have deep thoughts about the implications of the Peloponnesian War.

"This Country Has Gone To Hell": Total Chaos In Venezuelan Oil Capital After Blackout
Is the looting just a sign of an uprising against the current regime?
Bernardo Morillo, 60, who built and manages the mall told Bloomberg: “It’s hard to swallow. The national guard stood by as this vandalism happened and the firefighters didn’t even show.’’
Ricardo Costa, vice president of the Zulia state chapter of the Fedecamaras business group said: "...security forces were useless as people took anything of value, including cash machines, door frames, ovens, computers and surveillance cameras..."
The country's Centro 99 food market saw looters pick its shelves clean. “They even carried off the lard and flour to bake bread in their bare hands,’’ the store's manager said.
The looting started last Saturday afternoon after an ice company, on a hot day, demanded that it be paid in dollars. A crowd instead tore through its factory and then continued onto nearby pharmacies and stores. By the evening, the entire city was taken over by people seeking out life's necessities by any means necessary.



Posted by Dale Day at 3:43 AM
Labels: , , , , , , , , , ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)