Has U.S. Democracy Been Trumped?

[RedSpawn]

1. Because GWB set this up as an emergency fund for the "Global War on Terrorism" and it has continued every year since. The change of name to "Overseas Contingency Operations", often abbreviated to OCO/GWOT, reflects changes in the usage of the fund over time. Whether the fund is still appropriate is another question but you are probably aware that once funds are created they tend to be difficult to shut down.

 

2. Because it is US policy to hold overwhelming military might over any possible enemy including the ability to fight on multiple fronts. A war against an opponents such as Russia or China would tax the US military even with such spending and there are signs that China wants to ramp up their military, first land and air forces but eventually also to be able to challenge America on the seas. Quite aside from the practical case, the military also holds strong political clout and attempts to rationalise would run into all sorts of difficulties at both local and national levels.

 

3. If you look at your bank account at the start of the year, get a certain (known) budget/salary and then look at your bank account at the end of the year, you know how much has been spent irrespective of the accounting in-between. You can then know (or estimate) how much more or less then this you need in the following year and take this as your next base figure. It is not necessary to know precisely how much is being spent on ammunition, chicken or washing powder, for budgets you only need to know the end figures. And has already been pointed out to you, those are perfectly correct; it is only the internal accounting discrepancies between the various books that adds up to the quoted figure.

 

It is not necessary to know precisely how much is being spent on ammunition, chicken or washing powder, for budgets you only need to know the end figures. And has already been pointed out to you, those are perfectly correct; it is only the internal accounting discrepancies between the various books that adds up to the quoted figure.

This is a very dangerous quote. If the Department of Defense (DoD) paid double the market rate on ammunition, we need to know about it. If the DoD paid double the market rate on chicken or washing powder, we need to know about it. If the military paid an extra $28 million on uniforms, we need to know about it.

 

Seeing stuff like this, https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/06/21/pentagon-blew-28-million-uniforms-afghan-soldiers-report-says/413219001/ makes me wonder what other savings opportunities abound at the Pentagon. If DoD can't avoid a $28 million procurement error like this, what other outrageous procurement purchases are flying beneath the radar? Please note it is a Special Inspector General who uncovered this mismanagement of resources. A normal or periodic management review did not uncover these wasteful expenditures.

 

See how the Pentagon is hiding up to $125 billion in cost savings===> https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/pentagon-buries-evidence-of-125-billion-in-bureaucratic-waste/2016/12/05/e0668c76-9af6-11e6-a0ed-ab0774c1eaa5_story.html?utm_term=.47b4af04c025

 

I am not questioning IF the DoD spent their entire budget; government agencies are very good at doing that. We need to know if the DoD has responsibly used the resources that were appropriated to them. The devil is in the details NOT in the $6.0+ trillion year-end accounting entry to balance the books.

 

With a $600 billion ANNUAL budget, the last assurances we need to hear from management is, "Trust us. We spent the money well. You have our word on it." $600 billion is the monetary equivalent of winning a $1,000,000 lottery 600,000 separate times. We need to get a strong handle on exactly what's being spent in that budget. We have a duty to "trust but verify" as Former President Ronald Reagan would say.

 

What Congress and the public doesn't know is HOW the DoD spent that money; if it's being spent responsibly and with due care; and if procured items are essential and necessary. Perhaps mismanaged or diverted money can be used towards that 2.1% wage increase for the military personnel.

 

Please do not downplay the fact that the Inspector General has issued a disclaimer of opinion over the DoD's financials for the last 17 years. This is not just some rinky-dink IT problem that is overshadowing the financials. Congress can't control what it can't accurately measure. If DoD management wanted to issue transparent financials, they would have done so within a span of 17 years.

 

However, being dubious and opaque is good for intransigent bureaucracies. Very few people will question the DoD about being 54% of the discretionary spending of the federal budget. But we needn't argue over the other departments when there is potentially so much low-hanging fruit from the DoD tree.

 

 

Procurement and Operations & Maintenance is over 1/3 of $1 trillion annually. We need to review that detail because I am convinced there's plenty of cost savings if only the DoD would provide some reliable financial statements (and supporting schedules) we can sink our teeth into.

[Zelandakh]

Asshole needs a place to pontificate?

That's why you are here isn't it? ;) :ph34r: :lol:

[ldrews]

That's why you are here isn't it? ;) :ph34r: :lol:

 

Yes, to recognize assholes.

[Zelandakh]

Yes, to recognize assholes.

Just look in any mirror, mate. It's not rocket science.

[ldrews]

Just look in any mirror, mate. It's not rocket science.

 

Don't need to, looking at you.

[y66]

And now for something completely different ...

 

While the president of the United States was busy tweeting memes and insulting television personalities this weekend, a video circulated showing the chief justice of the US Supreme Court, John Roberts, encouraging a new generation of young men to be humble and generous.

 

As the commencement speaker at his son Jack’s ninth-grade graduation at the Cardigan Mountain School in rural New Hampshire last month, Roberts delivered a humorous speech, telling the new graduates that life would inevitably throw a number of curveballs their way.

 

How each boy responded would be a measure of who they are as people, he added.

 

“I wish you bad luck, from time to time, so that you will be conscious of the role of chance in life and understand that your success is not completely deserved, and the failure of others is not completely deserved either,” Roberts said. “And when you lose, as you will from time to time, I hope every now and then that your opponent will gloat over your failure, as a way to understand the importance of sportsmanship. I hope you’ll be ignored, so you understand the importance of listening to others, and I hope you will have just enough pain to learn compassion.”

 

Roberts told the graduates that they just gotten through the easiest parts of their lives. And while the road ahead would not be as easy, it would be full of moments to learn from, he said.

 

“Whether I wish these things or not, they’re going to happen,” he said. “And whether you benefit from them or not will depend upon the ability to see the message in your misfortunes.”

 

Roberts’s speech quickly won accolades for its focus on humility, with Robert Barnes at the Washington Post saying the chief’s justice’s commencement speech was more important than any decision he had handed down from the bench this year.

 

LA Times editorial writer and former Supreme Court reporter Michael McGough drew a sharp distinction between the speech and the recent antics of President Trump.

 

“Much of what Roberts said could also plausibly come from the mouth of a president — but not, unfortunately, this one,” McGough wrote.

 

Cardigan Mountain is an all-male junior prep school with an annual tuition costing about as much as that of most universities. But Roberts used his address to remind students that their privileged position comes with a recognition, and responsibility.

 

“You are also privileged young men, and if you weren’t privileged when you came here, you are now, because you have been here,” he said. “My advice is don’t act like it.”

 

As students made their way to their new high schools, Roberts encouraged them to introduce themselves to the staff there, especially “to the person who is raking the leaves, shoveling the snow, or emptying the trash. Learn their name, and call them by their name during your time at school.”

 

He told graduates to say hello to everyone they meet, even if they thought it awkward to start out with — and to write their old teachers at Cardigan handmade thank-you notes.

 

Roberts dispensed a lot of advice throughout his 15-minute speech, but there was one area where he admitted he couldn’t be helpful.

 

“Most of you will be going to a school with girls. I have no advice for you,” he said, to laughter and applause.

Source: Ella Nielsen at Vox

[kenberg]

And now for something completely different ...

 

 

Source: Ella Nielsen at Vox

 

I missed this. This so much reflects my view of life. Of course we must make responsible decisions. But we are sometimes stupid, and we are sometimes unlucky. We need to be thankful. For help along he way, for good luck, for someone taking up the slack when we have fallen short, for a great many things. I think I could like this guy.

 

I also think that his non-advice about girls is very wise.

[Zelandakh]

Don't need to, looking at you.

Keep looking, you might learn that not being an internet asshole all the time has its advantages. You see I don't do this schoolyard sh!t often yet it is obviously second nature to you. You could do with growing up and finding a respectful way of communicating with people you do not necessarily agree with. But you won't, not ever. You have had long enough at BBF to show an adult side. I have concluded that you are just here to troll and, quite frankly, if that is going to stay the case you may as well just p!$$ off and crawl back to the gutter you came from.

[barmar]

This is a very dangerous quote. If the Department of Defense (DoD) paid double the market rate on ammunition, we need to know about it. If the DoD paid double the market rate on chicken or washing powder, we need to know about it. If the military paid an extra $28 million on uniforms, we need to know about it.

This is very true, but it's not the question that was asked.

 

When I was growing up, the running joke was about the outrageous prices the military paid for things: $37 screws, a $7,622 coffee maker, $640 toilet seats; : suppliers to our military just won't be oversold. It would be great if we could do something about these costs, and we should have accurate books as a first step.

 

But you asked how can the Pentagon know how much they need in their budget when they don't have accurate books for the previous year. It's simple: we assume that the status quo will continue. Whatever inflated prices they paid this year for things, they'll continue to pay next year.

 

The above article is from 30 years ago. So we've known that the military is being taken for a ride for a long time, and there has not been the political will to do anything about it. I expect many legislators consider it acceptable, as another form of corporate welfare, and few of them want to cut prices that are being paid to big corporations in their districts. If the price of that toilet seat drops to normal levels, toilet seat manufacturers will have to lay off workers and possibly outsource to a third-world country to meet the demand at the new price. Explain that to your constituents. "We're sorry you all lost your jobs, but it was your management's fault for gouging the military."

[y66]

The reviews of President Trump’s new commission on election integrity are rolling in, and they’re not good.

 

“Disingenuous.” “Repugnant.” “At best a waste of taxpayer money.” “A tool to commit large-scale voter suppression.”

 

State officials across the country responded to the commission’s slapdash request last week for detailed voter data in the manner previously reserved for emailed pleas from a Nigerian prince.

 

Delete, said secretaries of state in Kentucky, Minnesota, Tennessee, California — more than 20 states refused to comply, red and blue and every hue in between. “They can go jump in the Gulf of Mexico,” Mississippi’s secretary of state, Delbert Hosemann, a Republican, responded.

 

On Saturday, Mr. Trump tweeted a familiar refrain at the states that refused to comply with the commission’s request: “What are they trying to hide?” The most convincing answer to that comes not from voting-rights advocates but from state and local election officials, Republican and Democratic, who oversee the actual mechanics of voting and who are best positioned to identify any fraud. Over and over, these officials, in no coordination with one another, have attested to the integrity of their elections.

From Happy Fourth of July! Show Us Your Papers by the NYT Editorial Board

[ldrews]

Keep looking, you might learn that not being an internet asshole all the time has its advantages. You see I don't do this schoolyard sh!t often yet it is obviously second nature to you. You could do with growing up and finding a respectful way of communicating with people you do not necessarily agree with. But you won't, not ever. You have had long enough at BBF to show an adult side. I have concluded that you are just here to troll and, quite frankly, if that is going to stay the case you may as well just p!$$ off and crawl back to the gutter you came from.

 

Perfect example of the civility that you offer.

[kenberg]

On this 4th of July I am more concerned about the preservation of democracy and freedom in this country yhan I ever have been. I am about as elite as a pepperoni pizza and really I am not all that much of a leftie. But what is going on is seriously frightening. The press has its faults. What else is new? So we need to work a bit and try to keep an open mind. Demonizing the press, let alone assaulting its representatives, is surely not the answer. We really need to give some thought to this, and I am hopeful that there are quite a few of us who agree.

[Winstonm]

On this 4th of July I am more concerned about the preservation of democracy and freedom in this country yhan I ever have been. I am about as elite as a pepperoni pizza and really I am not all that much of a leftie. But what is going on is seriously frightening. The press has its faults. What else is new? So we need to work a bit and try to keep an open mind. Demonizing the press, let alone assaulting its representatives, is surely not the answer. We really need to give some thought to this, and I am hopeful that there are quite a few of us who agree.

 

One of my great fears is that we are moving rapidly toward a tyranny of majority. Rampant populism that is unrestrained by checks and balances of laws and society's mores, and a constitution, is as dangerous as a dictatorship. The free and unfettered press is a key component of a free society. The more the press is demonized - as well as opposing viewpoints - the closer we come to a time when clubs and torches and violence are condoned in order to restore order.

 

The unpopular truth is that an elite group from which to pluck leadership is actually good for the country, as long as that group is not unduly influenced by powerful private interests. Unbridled self-interest does not offer a guide for what is best for the country as a whole; nationalism is simply unbridled self-interest on a grand scale.

 

Like it or not we are citizens of the world and have a responsibility to fit in.

 

This country has survived some awful Presidents - Andrew Jackson, William Taft - and we will survive the present one. What we cannot survive is a loss of republic to populist democracy.

[Zelandakh]

Perfect example of the civility that you offer.

Everyone here knows my level of civility. But for as long as you come here only to be a troll you should expect none. There comes a time when civil people have to stand up and say publically that bullsh!t is bullsh!t and an a$$h0le is an a$$h0le.

[jogs]

On this 4th of July I am more concerned about the preservation of democracy and freedom in this country

So am I. We seem to disagree what "preservation of democracy and freedom in this country" means.

[ldrews]

Everyone here knows my level of civility. But for as long as you come here only to be a troll you should expect none. There comes a time when civil people have to stand up and say publically that bullsh!t is bullsh!t and an a$$h0le is an a$$h0le.

 

Which is exactly what I did.

[kenberg]

So am I. We seem to disagree what "preservation of democracy and freedom in this country" means.

 

I would agree that we are in unshakable disagreement about Mr. Trump. As I have mentioned, I would find the guy completely repulsive if he embraced every policy view I support. It isn't that his insults interfere with his agenda, it's that his insults are the agenda, a large part of it. The principal goal of his healthcare plan is the destruction of the ACA.. Beyond that, he has shown no leadership and it is reasonable to conclude he doesn't care, as long as the ACA is killed. He is having the time of his life. He revels in destructiveness, and his supporters cheer.

 

I did not have the same concerns as I do now when Reagan or the first Bush was president. The second Bush should have recognized his limitations and opted out. I am sure I would strongly disagree with many policies that Mike Pence would offer, but then I might well favor others.More to the point, I would accept, cmfortably enough, his presidency, even if I disagreed with his views. From the beginning, it has been Trump the person that concerns me.

 

Do we disagree about the meaning of liberty and democracy? Probably. But maybe not beyond discussion, not at all in the total way that I view Trump.

 

"When you are a star, you can do anything". If anyne really doesn't understand who we have elected, they could start by pondering that.

[barmar]

I did not have the same concerns as I do now when Reagan or the first Bush was president. The second Bush should have recognized his limitations and opted out. I am sure I would strongly disagree with many policies that Mike Pence would offer, but then I might well favor others.More to the point, I would accept, cmfortably enough, his presidency, even if I disagreed with his views. From the beginning, it has been Trump the person that concerns me.

Well said. I also think I wouldn't like most of Pence's policies, but I would recognize that they come from a man with principles -- I just happen to disagree with those principles. For instance, if he doesn't believe in LGBTQ rights, it's because he fundamentally believes that there's something morally wrong with that lifestyle, and I accept that this may be due to prejudices that were common when and where he was growing up, not malice. It's possible to disagree with someone while still considering them a good person.

 

Trump, on the other hand, does not seem like a good person. He's mean, vidictive, and childish. He's the ultimate spoiled brat -- he was born with a silver spoon, and people have been feeding his ego all his life. This would be OK if he were just a figurehead, like the British royals. But POTUS is a position of real power, and the Spider-Man line about "great power" applies.

[Winstonm]

So am I. We seem to disagree what "preservation of democracy and freedom in this country" means.

 

How can you support Trump - a man who calls the free press the "enemy" - and still say with a straight face you are interested in the preservation of democracy and freedom in this country?

[Winstonm]

At a White House event last week, Donald Trump took a couple of minutes to express confidence about the fate of the Republican plan to overhaul the American health care system. "We're talking about a great, great form of health care," the president said, adding, "And we are looking at a health care that would be a fantastic tribute to our country; a health care that will take care of people, finally... This health care would be so good."

 

NBC's Seth Myers joked, "He sounds like a high-school student who didn't read the book, or have the book, or know how to read."

 

He can't be bothered with details - only wins and losses - about him.

[Winstonm]

From the NYT:

 

"If there were three words I could say to Congress right now," said Stephanie Clayton, a Republican state representative from a district in the Kansas City area, "they would be, 'Don't do it.'"

 

She criticized what she said was a desire by her party to be more faithful to the principle than to the people Republicans were elected to help. Mr. Brownback and many conservatives, she said, overpromised on the tax cuts as a "sort-of Ayn Rand utopia, a red-state model," citing the author whose works have influenced the American libertarian movement.

 

"And I loved Ayn Rand when I was 18 -- before I had children and figured out how the world really works," Ms. Clayton added. "That's not how it works, as it turns out."

 

It is amazing what happens to fantasies when one grows up - they vanish.

[barmar]

It is amazing what happens to fantasies when one grows up - they vanish.

Famous quote: "If You Are Not a Liberal at 25, You Have No Heart. If You Are Not a Conservative at 35 You Have No Brain"

 

This apparently goes back to 19th century France. Plus ça change....

[jogs]

How can you support Trump - a man who calls the free press the "enemy" - and still say with a straight face you are interested in the preservation of democracy and freedom in this country?

The free press has been using PC to hold back the Republicans for decades. Bush/McCain/Romney just took it. Trump will fight back.

[jogs]

I would agree that we are in unshakable disagreement about Mr. Trump. As I have mentioned, I would find the guy completely repulsive if he embraced every policy view I support. It isn't that his insults interfere with his agenda, it's that his insults are the agenda.

 

 

You are exactly the wrong age. Too young for the Korean war and too old for the Vietnam war.

 

I served during the Vietnam war as an enlisted man. Trump is a billionaire who acts like an uncouth 18 year-old enlisted man. Doesn't bother me. Trump is the only politician serving the working class and shop keepers.

[Winstonm]

You are exactly the wrong age. Too young for the Korean war and too old for the Vietnam war.

 

Trump is the only politician serving the working class and shop keepers.

 

If you believe this you are totally blinded by bias.