It does not matter which moronic party controls Congress or the White House. Both parties have worked together and voted to spend nearly $9 Trillion (with a T) of military spending with not one single audit since 1996.
After all, an audit and honest accounting of tax dollars might slow down the wholesale theft of cash that weakens our defense efforts.
(Reuters) - Because of its persistent inability to tally its accounts, the Pentagon is the only federal agency that has not complied with a law that requires annual audits of all government departments. That means that the $8.5 trillion in taxpayer money doled out by Congress to the Pentagon since 1996, the first year it was supposed to be audited, has never been accounted for.
That sum exceeds the value of China's economic output last year.
At the DFAS offices that handle accounting for the Army, Navy, Air Force and other defense agencies, fudging the accounts with false entries is standard operating procedure, Reuters has found. And plugging isn't confined to DFAS (pronounced DEE-fass). Former military service officials say record-keeping at the operational level throughout the services is rife with made-up numbers to cover lost or missing information.
A review of multiple reports from oversight agencies in recent years shows that the Pentagon also has systematically ignored warnings about its accounting practices. "These types of adjustments, made without supporting documentation … can mask much larger problems in the original accounting data," the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, said in a December 2011 report.
Plugs also are symptomatic of one very large problem: the Pentagon's chronic failure to keep track of its money - how much it has, how much it pays out and how much is wasted or stolen.
In its investigation, Reuters has found that the Pentagon is largely incapable of keeping track of its vast stores of weapons, ammunition and other supplies; thus it continues to spend money on new supplies it doesn't need and on storing others long out of date.
It has amassed a backlog of more than half a trillion dollars in unaudited contracts with outside vendors; how much of that money paid for actual goods and services delivered isn't known. And it repeatedly falls prey to fraud and theft that can go undiscovered for years, often eventually detected by external law enforcement agencies.
USS Gerald Ford - $13 Billion in Scrap Metal Proper audits might stop the flow of cold hard cash into insane boondoggle spending projects. For example, the price tag for the USS Gerald Ford is now at $13 billion, it is 22% over budget with three more years to go before it is finished. . To compare, the navy of India just took delivery of INS Vikramaditya aircraft carrier for a cost of $2.35 billion.
"We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations. . This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society. . . In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. . . We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together." . General Dwight Eisenhower President of the United States Republican
US Navy christens new class $13 billion aircraft carrier.
Already 22% over budget with three years more to go.
In any real war with modern missile technology this new carrier should stay afloat for about one hour . . . maybe two. So what we have done is purchase $13 billion in scrap metal that at some point will be at the bottom of the ocean floor. Land based forces cannot be sunk by a couple missiles, but then there is no big money in that for domestic defense contractors.
There is one good thing about the new USS Gerald Ford - the government spending to build it creates jobs.
But that is the only good thing. In an era of modern technology the aircraft carrier is as much a relic of World War II as the wooden sailing ships are from the Napoleonic Wars.
The US Navy has christened the first of a new class of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, the 13-billion-dollar USS Gerald R. Ford. The ship, hailed as the most technologically advanced ever built, is expected to join the fleet in 2016.
The ship is the Navy's first carrier designed in more than 40 years. The Ford-class aircraft carriers will replace current Nimitz class that was launched in 1972. The Ford is projected to stay in service until 2057.
The ship, named after US President Gerald Ford, was christened at the ceremony at Huntington Ingalls Newport News Shipbuilding in Newport News, Va. on Saturday. The new aircraft carrier is planned to replace the USS Enterprise (CVN-65) reports RT News.
The former president’s daughter, Susan Ford Bales, who was also the ship's sponsor, performed the ceremonial breaking of a bottle of champagne on the ship's bow in front of more than 20,000 sailors, shipbuilders and civilians.
The ceremony comes after more than 12 years of planning and construction. "The carrier is our Navy's most adaptable platform," Adm. Jonathan Greenert, chief of naval operations, said, calling the Ford a “technological marvel”. "Ford will herald a new era of our carrier fleet," he added.
CVN 78 (Gerald R Ford) at the shipyard during the initial filling of the dry dock.
Stretching 330 m (1,092 feet) long, the ship will feature a new nuclear power plant, a redesigned island, electromagnetic catapults and improved weapons movement.
The carrier will be able to carry more warplanes and launch 25 per cent more air missions per day than the current carriers. The US Navy required the carrier to support up to a maximum of 220 sorties a day in times of crisis and intense air warfare activity.
The new craft will accommodate almost 4,500 crew members, compared to the average 5,500 people operating a Nimitz class carrier, and up to 90 aircraft along with unmanned combat air vehicles (UAVs).
The USS Gerald Ford will be equipped with two newly-designed reactors and will have 250 percent more electrical capacity than previous carriers. This will also support a cruising speed over 30 knots.
Super-Expensive Super-Carrier
Requiring 1,000 fewer crew members and 30 per cent less maintenance over its 50-year lifespan, the Ford is said to let the US Navy save $4 billion.
While the Navy praises this as another significant advantage, critics say, the cost of building the ship has already skyrocketed. With the carrier now 70 per cent complete, construction costs are about 22 per cent over the scheduled budget.
The high price still will not guarantee that after it is commissioned in 2016 the carrier will not face “significant reliability shortfalls”, as the Government Accountability Office, an investigative arm of Congress, said in September.
Kamikaze Attacks
Kamikaze + Aircraft Carrier = Sunk
A total of 57 ships were sunk by Japanese kamikazes including 3 aircraft carriers and 14 destroyers. Some 368 other ships were damaged. About 4,900 sailors were killed and over 4,800 wounded. . All this was done with ancient World War II era technology. But for some insane reason we continue to build super expensive WWII style carriers in an age of high-tech missiles.
The Aircraft Carrier USS St. Lo Sunk by Japanese kamikaze aircraft on 25 October 1944 in the Battle of Leyte Gulf. . Call me crazy, but if an aircraft carrier can be sunk by a "primitive" propeller driven fighter plane one has to ask how long these ultra-expensive ships will remain afloat in an age of modern missile technology or jet fighters piloted by Muslim suicide bombers.
Boys love their toys. But how long will it stay afloat in
an age of modern missile weapons?
The USS Zumwalt, a massive 610-foot modern-day destroyer with an advanced rocket system, launched into the water off a Maine dock on Monday, in a surprisingly quiet ceremony, given the vessel’s record-breaking size and unusual shape.
It’s the largest destroyer ever built for the U.S. Navy.
“It’s absolutely massive,” said Amy Lent, the executive director of the Maine Maritime Museum, in The Daily Mail. “It’s higher than the tree line on the other side. It’s an absolutely huge ship — very imposing. It’s massively dominating the waterfront,” reports the Washington Times.
Are we overspending for combat vehicles? The US is spending upwards of $140,000 each on ultra-expensive Humvees that can rapidly be turned into scrap metal by cheap roadside IEDs. While in the Libyan War, rebels won with converted, low-tech Toyota trucks backed by modern air power. See our article: It is time to re-organize our military.
The ship has a 155 mm “Advanced Gun System,” with rocket-propelled warheads that can shoot 100 miles. And due to its high-technology component, it only requires half the normal amount of sailors to operate.
Originally designed simply for shore bombardment, the ship is now intended to serve multiple purposes, including backing up Marines on clandestine missions.To go along with its forward-looking nature, many of the Zumwalt’s operations are automated. There are so many computers running the ship that it will only require about 158 crew members to be on board. A typical Navy destroyer requires almost double that number.
In fact, the Navy’s plan to pack in so much sophisticated technology carried such a high price tag that some senior Navy officials tried to kill off the project. Instead, the program’s goal was narrowed: Rather than build 20 ships, the Navy would approve the construction of only three reports RT News.
Currently, the Zumwalt is on track to cost more than $3.5 billion. That’s a hefty sum, but, much to the relief of Navy officials, the ship’s construction is on time and on budget. Previous Navy programs, like the new fleet of Littoral Combat Ships (LCS), haven’t been nearly as lucky.
Although significantly smaller than destroyers, the LCS have been swamped with complications ranging from technical issues to cost overruns. Last year, the Navy said it had brought the cost for each LCS down to under $400 million, but the first two each carried a $700 million price tag.
To make matters worse, one suffered a major leak-causing crack in its hull, while the other’s on-board technology failed to distinguish underwater mines from light hitting the waves. The LCS’ computer networks also proved to be susceptible to hackers, and a Defense Department study found that the ships are “not expected to be survivable” in combat.
Navy's Next Generation Destroyer 'USS Zumwalt'
A Staggering cost of $3.5 Billion Each. Concept art of the Zumwalt-class stealth destroyers in operation. At a massive $3.5 billion each, are these ships practical for war? or are they designed to provide employment for military contractors? (Internet photo)
How long would any ship from any navy in the world last in an age of modern missile technology?
The bigger they are, the deeper they sink. lll The thousands of years of naval history have proven only one thing - all ships sink. . While heading for the relative safety of occupied France, Bismarck was attacked by obsolete biplane Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers from the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal; one scored a hit that rendered the battleship's steering gear inoperable. Bismarck was neutralized by a sustained bombardment from a British fleet, was scuttled by her crew, and sank with heavy loss of life. . See more at German battleship Bismarck
The Fairey Swordfish torpedo bomber biplane disabled the Bismarck. Simple technology disabling new, powerful and "modern" technology.
The USS Cole Bombing This was a Muslim suicide attack against the United States Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Cole in October, 2000, while it was harbored and being refueled in the Yemen port of Aden. 17 American sailors were killed, and 39 were injured. . In World War II Japanese Kamikaze "low tech" suicide attacks damaged over 300 Allied ships and sunk 57 ships including three aircraft carriers and fourteen destroyers. . So the question of the day - Is the USS Zumwalt just an expensive floating target?
Comrade Obama's Department of Homeland Security is increasing its preparations for domestic unrest by spending half a million dollars on fully automatic pepper spray launchers and projectiles that are designed to be used during riot control situations reports journalist Paul Joseph Watson.
In an announcement of a no bid contract posted on the Federal Business Opportunities website, the federal agency signals its intention to purchase nearly 240,000 pepper spray projectiles, 100 pepper spray launchers, as well as 36 “riot expansion kits”.
The PepperBall TAC-700 pepper spray launcher “features full auto, semi-auto, or 3 round burst providing up to 700 rounds per minute,”according to the company which will provide the DHS with the weapons. It is also “accurate to 60 feet with area saturation up to 150 feet.” The weapon is routinely used in riot control situations around the world reports Infowars News.
According to a video demonstration, the TAC-700 has a “strong psychological influence” on the people it is being used against because it is so loud and sounds like an automatic machine gun.
Although the weapons are being purchased by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the document makes it clear that they will be used to train Federal Protective Service (FPS) agents.
The total cost of the contract amounts to $498,970 dollars and mandates that delivery of the weapons will be made within 60 days of the award.
Although the contract states that the pepper spray projectiles will be used for “training purposes,” 117,000 of them are inert compared to 120,000 “Live X Projectiles,” which are the most powerful projectiles available on PepperBall’s website, and are designed to be used during riot control situations.
The “riot expansion kits” being purchased by the DHS are holsters that accompany the PepperBall products and can be used to store projectiles. According to one website, they represent, “the perfect non-lethal crowd management tool for gaining compliance over rioters, organized protesters, and unlawful assemblies,” and can be used to, “Gain psychological advantage over unruly crowds.”
The purchase of these items sends another clear signal that the DHS is preparing for some form of civil disorder.
The American middle class is being devoured before our very eyes by technology and robotics.
As much as I slam Obama as the Food Stamp King, the food stamp issue started long before he appeared. Food stamps are only a symptom of the problem. Food stamps are the new normal.
We are not out of work because the economy is bad. The economy is bad because we are out of work.
It amazes me the more I study this story. If you listen to the so-called "experts" in the main stream media, you will believe that what happened to the global economy only happened starting in the latter part of 2008. They are way off base. For many years we have been seeing a slow motion job implosion of the Americans economy driven by the Internet, robotics and outsourcing.
A huge part of the food stamp explosion is millions of jobs being eliminated by robotics, the Internet and outsourcing to Asia and Latin America.
EBT cards are the modern version of the old Roman bread and circuses to keep the permanently unemployed mobs fed and entertained so they would not rise up against the political system.
The number of people enrolled in SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, aka "food stamps") has doubled to 47 million people in the past ten years. Perhaps more disturbingly, the number of people on the program increased during a period of economic growth, something that has never happened before.
Poverty used to fall in tandem with the jobless rate, reducing the need for food stamps but the researchers found poverty did not decline as the economy grew in the mid-2000s -- and in the recovery following the Great Recession, the number of people receiving food stamps kept rising.
The assumption has always been a stronger labor market would reduce the need for food stamps, the economists said, but the new trend suggests rising employment might no longer be enough.
SNAP is also being expanded in several states to include food from restaurants. Gift baskets that include both food and non-food items are also eligible to be purchased with SNAP.
The government is encouraging enrollment—and reliance—on their programs. EBT Bingo games occur in Rhode Island to enroll residents in the program.
China helped create the Food Stamp Explosion When China was admitted to the World Trade Organization in 2001, tariffs were lowered, and it became very profitable for American companies to relocate production to China’s sweatshops. . Millions of American jobs were lost, and those former workers have piled up on the food-stamp rolls. Experts say the cause of the ongoing crisis is trade imbalances created by then-President Clinton about 20 years ago when he granted China most-favored-nation trading status --- when he negotiated World Trade Organization membership for China.
Five years after the start of the Great Recession, the toll is terrifyingly clear: Millions of middle-class jobs have been lost in developed countries the world over.
And the situation is even worse than it appears.
Most of the jobs will never return, and millions more are likely to vanish as well, say experts who study the labor market. What's more, these jobs aren't just being lost to China and other developing countries, and they aren't just factory work. Increasingly, jobs are disappearing in the service sector, home to two-thirds of all workers.
They're being obliterated by technology.
Year after year, the software that runs computers and an array of other machines and devices becomes more sophisticated and powerful and capable of doing more efficiently tasks that humans have always done. For decades, science fiction warned of a future when we would be architects of our own obsolescence, replaced by our machines; an Associated Press analysis finds that the future has arrived. Read more at http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2013/02/robot-wars-in-china-bugger-flipping.html#rmIlzyAFl702EfvB.99
Five years after the start of the Great Recession, the toll is terrifyingly clear: Millions of middle-class jobs have been lost in developed countries the world over.
And the situation is even worse than it appears.
Most of the jobs will never return, and millions more are likely to vanish as well, say experts who study the labor market. What's more, these jobs aren't just being lost to China and other developing countries, and they aren't just factory work. Increasingly, jobs are disappearing in the service sector, home to two-thirds of all workers.
They're being obliterated by technology.
Year after year, the software that runs computers and an array of other machines and devices becomes more sophisticated and powerful and capable of doing more efficiently tasks that humans have always done. For decades, science fiction warned of a future when we would be architects of our own obsolescence, replaced by our machines; an Associated Press analysis finds that the future has arrived. Read more at http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2013/02/robot-wars-in-china-bugger-flipping.html#rmIlzyAFl702EfvB.99
Five years after the start of the Great Recession, the toll is terrifyingly clear: Millions of middle-class jobs have been lost in developed countries the world over.
And the situation is even worse than it appears.
Most of the jobs will never return, and millions more are likely to vanish as well, say experts who study the labor market. What's more, these jobs aren't just being lost to China and other developing countries, and they aren't just factory work. Increasingly, jobs are disappearing in the service sector, home to two-thirds of all workers.
They're being obliterated by technology.
Year after year, the software that runs computers and an array of other machines and devices becomes more sophisticated and powerful and capable of doing more efficiently tasks that humans have always done. For decades, science fiction warned of a future when we would be architects of our own obsolescence, replaced by our machines; an Associated Press analysis finds that the future has arrived. Read more at http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2013/02/robot-wars-in-china-bugger-flipping.html#rmIlzyAFl702EfvB.99
Five years after the start of the Great Recession, the toll is terrifyingly clear: Millions of middle-class jobs have been lost in developed countries the world over.
And the situation is even worse than it appears.
Most of the jobs will never return, and millions more are likely to vanish as well, say experts who study the labor market. What's more, these jobs aren't just being lost to China and other developing countries, and they aren't just factory work. Increasingly, jobs are disappearing in the service sector, home to two-thirds of all workers.
They're being obliterated by technology.
Year after year, the software that runs computers and an array of other machines and devices becomes more sophisticated and powerful and capable of doing more efficiently tasks that humans have always done. For decades, science fiction warned of a future when we would be architects of our own obsolescence, replaced by our machines; an Associated Press analysis finds that the future has arrived. Read more at http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2013/02/robot-wars-in-china-bugger-flipping.html#rmIlzyAFl702EfvB.99
The Middle Class - Busted & Betrayed
While both parties fall all over themselves to legalize and import citizens of foreign nations, the jobs held by American citizens are being abolished by the millions.
Five years after the start of the Great Recession, the toll is terrifyingly clear: Millions of middle-class jobs have been lost in developed countries the world over.
And the situation is even worse than it appears.
Most of the jobs will never return, and millions more are likely to vanish as well, say experts who study the labor market. What's more, these jobs aren't just being lost to China and other developing countries, and they aren't just factory work. Increasingly, jobs are disappearing in the service sector, home to two-thirds of all workers.
Year after year, the software that runs computers and an array of other machines and devices becomes more sophisticated and powerful and capable of doing more efficiently tasks that humans have always done. For decades, science fiction warned of a future when we would be architects of our own obsolescence, replaced by our machines; an Associated Press analysis finds that the future has arrived.
"The jobs that are going away aren't coming back," says Andrew McAfee, principal research scientist at the Center for Digital Business at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and co-author of "Race Against the Machine." ''I have never seen a period where computers demonstrated as many skills and abilities as they have over the past seven years."
The global economy is being reshaped by machines that generate and analyze vast amounts of data; by devices such as smartphones and tablet computers that let people work just about anywhere, even when they're on the move; by smarter, nimbler robots; and by services that let businesses rent computing power when they need it, instead of installing expensive equipment and hiring IT staffs to run it.
Whole employment categories, from secretaries to travel agents, are starting to disappear.
The AP's key findings:
For more than three decades, technology has reduced the number of jobs in manufacturing. Robots and other machines controlled by computer programs work faster and make fewer mistakes than humans. Now, that same efficiency is being unleashed in the service economy, which employs more than two-thirds of the workforce in developed countries. Technology is eliminating jobs in office buildings, retail establishments and other businesses consumers deal with every day.
Technology is being adopted by every kind of organization that employs people. It's replacing workers in large corporations and small businesses, established companies and start-ups. It's being used by schools, colleges and universities; hospitals and other medical facilities; nonprofit organizations and the military.
The most vulnerable workers are doing repetitive tasks that programmers can write software for — an accountant checking a list of numbers, an office manager filing forms, a paralegal reviewing documents for key words to help in a case. As software becomes even more sophisticated, victims are expected to include those who juggle tasks, such as supervisors and managers — workers who thought they were protected by a college degree.
Technology is replacing workers in developed countries regardless of their politics, policies and laws. Union rules and labor laws may slow the dismissal of employees, but no country is attempting to prohibit organizations from using technology that allows them to operate more efficiently — and with fewer employees.
More American Workers Outsourcing Own Jobs Overseas
The droids are taking our jobs An Oxford University study concluded that 47% of all
Touch Screens at McDonalds Abolish Jobs. McDonald's and the Japanese sushi chain, Kura, just installed 7,000 touch-screens throughout Europe, eliminating the need for workers to take customers' orders. Kura, for its part, has been able to fully eliminate cashiers from their workforce.
. “The Master created humans first as the lowest type, most easily formed. Gradually, he replaced them by robots, the next higher step, and finally he created me, to take the place of the last humans.” ― Isaac Asimov - I, Robot
Congress allows an UNLIMITED increase in the debt until February 7th.
The budget measure that ended the partial government shutdown allows for a 1% raise for Federal employees in January.
GOP abandons the Constitution. Allows the Senate alone to dictate all government spending.
For TV both parties pretend to focus on Obamacare, but work together behind the scenes to keep other spending programs fully funded and out of the debate.
By Gary;
Both parties have kicked the Socialist spending-debt can down the road yet again.
With the Democrats you get up-front honest Marxism, wealth re-distribution and an unconstitutional centralized 1984 Surveillance State.
My beef is with the Republicans. I have Blogged from day one that the GOP is effectively a radical New Deal Leftist political movement. The party has adopted as their own, voted to fund and has protected every Liberal wet-dream spending or police state program ever conceived by FDR or LBJ plus a few the GOP dreamed up on their own.
So we have a nation without an opposition party.
The GOP talks a good game about small Constitutional government, but the party members eagerly latch on to the public teat. We are already seeing GOP Governors around the nation jumping on the Obamacare train in order to cash those Federal checks. In 2014 those Republicans will campaign for re-election that they "brought home the bacon" to their districts and states.
The GOP lost the public relations moral high ground in January, 2011. Except for holding hearings in the House to embarrass the other Big Government faction, the GOP has not fought to cut one single dime. They voted again and again to protect re-distribution of wealth spending programs and increase the debt limit.
In a world gone mad, the now capitalist Chinese are condemning U.S. big government spending. A Chinese ratings agency downgraded its US sovereign credit rating Thursday despite Washington's resolution of the debt ceiling deadlock, warning that fundamentals for a potential default remained "unchanged".
Dagong lowered its ratings for US local and foreign currency credit from A to A-, maintaining a negative outlook.
Look out Greece, here we come.
The "Billionaires" of Zimbabwe know full well about the endless printing of money.
Left wing group given $500,000 grant to help work Obamacare into TV and movie scripts
If you’re sick and tired of TV news broadcasts spewing pro-Obamacare propaganda, get ready to be inundated with even more progressive health care proselytizing in the dramas and comedies that follow those news shows.
For this you have the left-wing California Endowment to thank. The radical philanthropy is in the news because it is funding Obamacare public outreach efforts.
As Newsmax reports, the Obama administration is “turning its focus on prime time television series, using the influential platform and the power of celebrity to spread the word about its healthcare initiative.”
With the White House’s blessing, the University of Southern California’s Annenberg Norman Lear Center, which has something called a “Hollywood, Health & Society program,” has accepted a $500,000 grant from the left-wing California Endowment to help TV producers condition the masses into supporting Obama’s Soviet-style health care program.
USC will aim to keep producers, writers, and directors up to speed so they can incorporate the latest information into their storylines. It will also generate public service announcements to match the TV shows’ storylines.
“Our experience has shown that the public gets just as much, if not more, information about current events and important issues from their favorite television shows and characters as they do from the news media and online resources,” said Martin Kaplan, who heads the USC program, in a statement. “This grant will allow us to ensure that industry practitioners have up-to-date, relevant facts on health care reform to integrate into their storylines and projects.”
Half of the funding will be devoted to Spanish-language programming.
The USC program's advisory board contains several influential television executives, Deadline Hollywood found. Among them Jennifer Cecil, co-executive producer of "Hostages," Vince Gilligan, creator of "Breaking Bad" and Chris Nee, the executive producer of Disney Jr.'s "Doc McStuffins."
They join several high profile actors and actresses who have stepped up to lend their names and time to promoting the Obamacare message to a mass audience. Most recently, Academy Award-winning actress Jennifer Hudson completed a viral parody video of the popular "Scandal" series, which is set in a fictional White House, for Will Ferrell's "Funny or Die" online spots.
In July, a group of celebrities, including Hudson, visited Washington to meet with the president and his staff and to learn what they could do to assist in advance of the program's rollout, The Hollywood Reporter, said at the time.
"The president stopped by the meeting to engage artists who expressed an interest in helping to educate the public about the benefits of the health law," a White House official told the Hollywood Reporter. "The reach of these national stars spreads beyond the Beltway to fans of their television shows, movies and music—and the power of these artists to speak through social media is especially critical."
No federal employees at all. The only “federal” connection is that the Cliff House pays a fee to operate on government land, and that fee had been paid. They had the right to operate.
The forced closing of the restaurant by the Democrat Party has put out of work all the servers, bus boys, cooks and support staff.
Let's bottom line it. Our Comrade President does not give a fuck if the laid off employees are able to feed themselves, feed their children or pay their rent.
People's Republic of California - Most of the news about the “Shutdown Theater” — unnecessary closures ordered by the Obama administration to purposely maximize the pain of the government shutdown — has focused on the Washington, DC area, but the epidemic of artificial Potemkin Suffering has now struck the West Coast as well.
San Francisco’s Cliff House, a privately owned and very profitable restaurant overlooking the Pacific Ocean, was suddenly and unexpectedly ordered closed today, “because” the building sits on federal land. This, despite the fact that the Cliff House racks up $11.5 million in annual sales and is one of the most profitable independent restaurants in the nation reports PJ Media.
Closed a 2nd Time
On Monday, October 7, with little fanfare, Cliff House’s owners Dan and Mary Hountalas decided to defy the government’s closure order and instead re-open for business, to the delight of the hundreds of tourists and locals who dine there every day.
The famed Cliff House restaurant has been forced to shut its doors for the remainder of the federal government shutdown, after it defied orders by reopening earlier this week.
How does the government save money by shuttering a profitable business? And a private one at that? . There are no federal employees at the Cliff House restaurant; a receptionist still manning the phones there today confirmed that all employees are paid by the restaurant’s owners, not by the government.
As the Cliff House’s own Web site notes, the restaurant is a “concessionaire” operating a business on Federal land — in this case, the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, which encompasses much of the Pacific shoreline along San Francisco and Marin counties — which means it is a private business which pays a fee to operate on government property.
A California Classic Since 1858 Cliff House has had five major incarnations since its beginnings in 1858. That year, Samuel Brannan, a prosperous ex-Mormon elder from Maine, bought for $1,500 the lumber salvaged from a ship that foundered on the basalt cliffs below. With this material he built the first Cliff House. . The growth of Golden Gate Park attracted beach travellers, in search of meals and a look at the sea lions sunning themselves on Seal Rocks just off the cliffs, to visit the area. The 1896 Cliff House survived the 1906 earthquake with little damage, but burned to the ground on the evening of September 7, 1907, after existing for only 11 years. The modern Cliff House features two restaurants, the casual dining Bistro Restaurant and the more formal Sutro's.
The war that never ends because "peace" does not make
profits for the military-industrial complex.
Why no declaration of war? - A proper and Constitutional Declaration of War is always made against a government of another nation. A declaration is made and later a peace treaty is signed and hostilities end. But these vague "authorizations of force" appear to have no end. Thus the wars and war profiteering can go on and on.
Dead or wounded soldiers? No problem. The politicians always provide an endless stream of fresh young men to feed the war machine. But I am just a "crazy" anti-war Conservative.
The war in Afghanistan officially began 12 years ago. To put it in perspective, the last time we didn't have boots on the ground in Afghanistan, Obama was still an Illinois state senator, the first iPhone was six years away from release and "Friends" was still on the air.
In the past 12 years, at least 2,146 members of the U.S. military have died while serving in Afghanistan. This figure includes four American soldiers who were killed by an IED explosion in the south of the country on Sunday.
A recent study found that the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq will end up costing taxpayers between $4 trillion to $6 trillion. Unsurprisingly, most Americans think their tax dollars have been wasted.
As the conflict drags on, tensions between Afghans and international soldiers of the NATO coalition have only gotten worse. According to the Economist, one in seven of all NATO service member deaths this year "has been at the hands of the very Afghan troops the coalition is trying to help and train."
In August, an Afghan soldier opened fire on his Australian colleagues at a military base, killing three. In September, three NATO troops were killed by a man wearing an Afghan army uniform.
So the Afghan War goes on and on with no real plan from the politicians about an exit. So what else is new?
The common soldier always pays the price. The top generals and liar hack politicians remain safe behind the lines far from danger, but they are the first to parade themselves on TV to claim "credit" or place blame for any given war.
Afghan Guides, 2nd Anglo-Afghan War - 1879. The British fought three Afghan wars. It changed nothing, Afghanistan stayed the same. But it did make the politicians and companies that make weapons feel better. . But don't worry, either next year or in ten years the politicians will find some "vital" issue and go into another war somewhere. The dead and wounded vets from the old war will be forgotten as our leaders seek glory on some new battlefield.
Officers of the 10th Hussars at Jellalabad - 1879 South West of Jellalabad in North Eastern Afghanistan. See The Battle of Futtehabad.
45th Rattray's Sikhs guard Afghan prisoners during an advance through the Khyber Pass.
Maiwand, Afghanistan 1880 British Officers with Captured Cannon, Second Anglo-Afghan War, 1880. The more things change, the more they stay the same. See The Battle of Maiwand.
Afghanistan 1869 Not much has changed. Sher Ali (center) surrounded by court officials, tribal leaders, and sons.
By order of Obama, God of the Sea, the National Park Service closed the ocean to both mortal fishermen and boat captains alike.
Due to the Harry Reid shutdown, fishing boats are prohibited from taking anglers into 1,100 square miles of open ocean off Florida.
Fishing in the ocean at Biscayne National Park is also prohibited.
The Park Service will also have rangers on duty to police the ban of access to an ocean. The government will probably use more personnel and spend more resources to attempt to close the ocean, than it would in its normal course of business reports the Miami Herald.
This is governing by temper-tantrum. It is on par with the government's ham-fisted attempts to close the DC WWII Memorial, an open-air public monument that is normally accessible 24 hours a day. By accessible I mean, you walk up to it. When you have finished reflecting, you then walk away from it.
At least that Memorial is an actual structure, with some kind of perimeter that can be fenced off.
Florida Bay is the ocean. How, pray tell, do you "close" 1,100 square miles of ocean? Why would one even need to do so?
Centuries ago, King Canute famously failed to command the ocean tide to stop. His display was actually a means to educate his subjects on the limits of royal power. Today, however, our God-King actually believes he has the power to control the oceans.
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